Panthers win throughBy Justin Robertson

THEY snuck in by the skin of their teeth.
At the eleventh hour, the Dandenong Panthers have somehow pulled a rabbit out of the hat to conjure up a thrilling 15-run win against the Camberwell Magpies, to set up a quarter final showdown with Casey-South Melbourne at Casey Fields this weekend.
Camberwell needed 40 runs with one wicket remaining, when a Brett Fairbanks delivery skittled the pegs over, leaving Panthers skipper Darren Dempsey relived and extremely pleased with the result.
“We had such a good start to the season it would have been a shame to not have given ourselves a chance to play finals,” he said. “I must admit though, I was getting a little nervous towards the end there.”
The Magpies started the day at 4-46 and needed a further 144 for victory.
For the Panthers, the early signs looked promising Dempsey gobbled up an edge at first slip in the third over off the bowling of medium pacer James Nanopoulous (3/46).
But a fifth wicket 57-run stand seemed to have swung the match back in favour of the home side. Once the partnership was broken on 112, a lower order collapse followed with the loss of 3/15 taking the score to 9/147.
It’s been a tough two months leading up to the finals for the Panthers, but Dempsey – who will play in his first ever finals series in Melbourne – said he was confident their “excellent” two-day form would ensure a close match against local rivals Casey this weekend.
“We can take solace from the fact that our two-day form has been pretty good and we are hoping it continues against Casey,” he said.
“We are happy that we’ve drawn them for this week and I reckon they’d be thinking the same thing.”
The Swans will be without Victorian players, wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, Swans skipper Jayde Herrick and seam bowler Damien Wright, which Dempsey sees as an advantage for the Panthers.
“They’re obviously not going to be at their strongest, so we’ll definitely go in confident of winning the match, for sure,” he said.
“The eleven we have now will be the team to take us through the finals – with the exception of the odd available Victorian player – but with our bowlers doing very well at the moment, we’ll be looking to our batsmen to really step up.”