Panthers tear through bats

By Justin Robertson
DANDENONG Panthers bounced back from their recent form slump and steamrolled Hawthorn-Monash University for 138 in their match on Saturday at Monash University.
After a gloomy first hour which had Hawthorn-Monash at 1/66 (14) Panthers captain Darren Dempsey pulled his team in for some “tough love” during the drinks break.
“We had a talk at the interval and addressed our lack of intensity and I basically just asked for a lift,” he said. “After that our bowlers set a pretty high standard and thankfully we came through, otherwise we would have been in the field all day.”
With wet weather predicted again for this Saturday Dempsey said his team’s hard work last Saturday could prove to be an important day.
“If it does rain again, at least we can take points away with us,” he said. “But, hopefully we can get on and play some cricket.”
James Wilcock was the pick of the bowlers claiming 3/24 and took his wickets at crucial times. Dempsey also paid tribute to Victorian speedster James Pattinson (3/30) who broke a couple of vital partnerships.
“Wilcock was certainly our best and bowled a really good line all day,” he said. “Pattinson bowled really fast and broke a partnership which is what we want from him. He had a few very unlucky spells too.”
Brett Fairbanks whipped through the tail with 4/24 from 14 overs.
In reply, the Panthers hit back hard and captured some batting form they showed earlier this season with a 137-run opening stand between new batting partners left-hand batsmen Tom Donnell (68 not out) and Nick Thomas (65).
“That partnership really set us up batting-wise, they haven’t batted together before so it was great to see them do well,” Dempsey said. “ We’ve dropped Hales down to three to make sure he gets more time in the middle, the past three weeks he’s faced six balls, so, we are hoping he’ll do well batting there.”
English recruit, Alex Hales is six not out and will look to build on an already strong position next week with Donnell.