By Paul Pickering
A PUNISHING outright victory over Casey-South Melbourne has catapulted the Dandenong Panthers into fifth spot on the Premier Cricket table.
The Panthers resumed at 2/165 on Saturday, having cruised past the Swans’ first innings total of 159.
Looking for quick runs before sending the home side back in at Casey Fields, Dave Newman (65 from 64 balls) and playing-coach Warren Ayres (40 not out from 40 balls) wasted little time in blasting the Panthers to a declared total of 6/292.
Facing a deficit of 133 runs, the Swans looked like making a better fist of their second dig as emerging all-rounder Clive Rose (69) guided his team to 3/107 at tea.
With the prospect of maximum points seemingly slipping away from the Panthers, it was Matt Chasemore who claimed the vital breakthrough on the second ball after the break, trapping Robbie Elston (21) in front to spark a collapse of 7/57.
While the Swans clearly believed that Chasemore was on the receiving end of some dubious umpiring decisions, his stump-to-stump bowling was rewarded with figures of 4/27 – and 7/43 for the match.
Meanwhile, Newman confirmed his status as the competition’s form all-rounder by adding 3/32 to his first innings figures of 3/21.
Despite some sloppy fielding late in the innings, the Panthers managed to dismiss the Swans for 165, leaving Kumar Sarna and Brett Forsyth (both 16 not out) to mow down the 33 runs required for outright victory with some five overs of play to spare.
The result capped off a successful weekend for the Panthers, with Darren Pattinson and Peter Siddle starring for Victoria in its one-day win over Western Australia on Saturday.
Pattinson claimed man-of-the-match honours with three wickets, while Siddle joined his Panthers team-mate at the crease to hit the winning runs.
Meanwhile, Newman’s continued form earned him a spot in Bushrangers’ second XI clash with the ACT in Glen Waverley this week, where he claimed astonishing match figures of 8/39.
So while the rare 10-point result on Saturday has seen Dandenong jump from tenth to fifth on the ladder, Ayres is likely to have several of his key players unavailable for this Saturday’s clash with North Melbourne.
Sarna will be joining team-mate James Pattinson in a training camp ahead of the upcoming Under-21 World Cup, while left-arm paceman James Butterfield will miss the rest of the season after breaking his hand last week.
Ayres declared that Saturday’s game would be “an interesting test of our depth”, foreshadowing the promotion of Tom Hussey to the senior ranks after an unbeaten ton in the seconds on the weekend.
Dandenong’s two-day fixture against North Melbourne (11th place) begin at 11am at Shepley Oval this Saturday.
