By Jarrod Potter
WHILE Dandenong’s tear-away quick James Pattinson was out terrorising New Zealand, the Panthers went about knocking off Footscray-Edgewater in their two-dayer at Shepley Oval.
The Panthers actually missed seeing Pattinson snare his wickets, on account of warming up before the match, but as word filtered down about his success, they were left awestruck.
“We were actually doing our warm-ups,” Dandenong captain Darren Dempsey said. “Him being at 3/1 then 4/1, we couldn’t believe it.
“It was a great day for Dandenong and a great day for James.”
The new ball pair for Australia was Peter Siddle and James Pattinson – the same duo Dandenong used last season to defeat Frankston-Peninsula in the Premier cricket final.
“To have the opening partnership for a test match the same as we had for the grand final last year was fantastic,” Dempsey said.
Inspired by the effort of Pattinson, the Panthers defeated the Bulldogs, with the one-two punch of Brett Forsyth and Tom Donnell too much for Footscray-Edgewater to handle
Footscray-Edgewater was bowled out early Sunday morning for 30l, courtesy of James Wilcock’s 4/50 and two wickets from James Nanopoulos (2/38) and Paul Boraston (2/58).
Dandenong took the initiative away from Footscray-Edgewater with a magnificent 172-run opening stand between Donnell (109) and Forsyth (122 not out).
When Donnell was dismissed LBW on 109, the heavy-lifting shifted onto Forsyth, who anchored the innings with his century coming off 261 balls.
He received good support from Matt Machan (28) and Nanopoulos (20) to attain the last few runs needed. Dempsey said the great chase was set up by the big efforts of Wilcock and Nanopoulos to extract Footscray-Edgewater batsmen on a batting-friendly pitch.
“Looking back to our bowling innings, it puts in context how hard it was to take wickets,” Dempsey said. “Wilcock stood out for us, taking four wickets. James Nanopoulos bowled a good line and length. We took 10 wickets and they took three, so it’s a great example of the gap between the two teams.
“No doubt the batting was fantastic to chase 300, but the discipline from the bowlers throughout the day was impressive as well.”
Dempsey said Victorian selectors should be taking great interest in Forsyth and Donnell, with the pair striking the best first-wicket partnership of the season so far. “Tom Donnell played well,” Dempsey said. “They bowled short to him thinking he had a weakness there, and scored 60 runs off the pull short.
“Forsyth played a mature innings to support Tom.
“He ended on 122 not out and they’re probably the most formidable opening pair in the competition.”
Facing Richmond away in a two-dayer across the weekend, Dempsey said it would be a challenging contest for both sides.
“It’ll be a good game,” Dempsey said. “They chased 380 on the weekend, so they’re in good form with the bat.
“They’ll probably say they’ve underachieved in the last few years, so it will be a tough game and we’ll have to bring our best.”
Dempsey said there was a chance Jack Worrell, the young spinner from Dandenongs’s second XI, could be selected for this match to boost the slow bowling options for the Panthers.
