Panthers young gun Kuma Sarna has made an impressive start to the Premier Cricket season with scores of 44 against Geelong and 22 against Carlton. By Glen Atwell
THE Dandenong Panthers were no match for the rampaging Carlton in their one-day Victorian Premier Cricket match at Shepley Oval on Saturday.
Warren Ayres won his second consecutive coin toss and elected to bat on what seemed to be a golden day to score runs.
But the Panthers struggled with the bat, Matthew Chasemore (2) and David Newman (15) both failing for the second week.
Kuma Sarna (22) made a start and would be happy with his first two knocks of the season (44 and 22).
The Carlton bowlers were relentless, Tim Welsford (3/14) and Jon Holland (2/38) rarely giving the batsmen an inch in their respective 10-over spells.
At 6/91 the Panthers were in trouble, but Tim Hooper (49) and Darren Pattinson (42) added 96 runs for the seventh wicket and gave the bowlers a defendable total of 197.
But Carlton made good use of the flat wicket and smashed the Panthers’ bowlers all over the ground.
Nathan Pilon (84 not out) and Evan Gulbis (41) led Carlton to an easy seven-wicket victory, passing their target with a score of 3/200 in the 36th over.
Darren Pattinson (2/38) was the only Dandenong bowler to trouble the Carlton batsmen.
This weekend the Panthers play the Melbourne Demons in Melbourne.
The Demons crashed back to reality against Richmond on Saturday, losing by nine wickets after scoring only 183.
