By JARROD POTTER
DANDENONG (183) failed to fire in its Victorian Premier Cricket season-opener, downed in a tenacious dogfight by Geelong (7/184).
Wickets fell in pairs for the Panthers as the top order struggled against the visitors. Dan Doran survived an early drop on eight, before belting a sublime boundary off the pads, a comfortable two-down the wicket then succumbing to an uppish ball from Jake Reed to knick it for 16.
Tom Donnell similarly got his shots off – with a cannon-like six off Luke Muller sailing into the fence in front of the pavilion – before he danced the off-spinner a little too much, finding the stumps taken behind him for 21.
The rest of the order crumbled before some resistance was shown by Charith Cooray (46), captain Darren Pattinson (25 not out) and wicketkeeper Rob Hearn (16). With the sunshine hardening the pitch and making the outfield dry and lightning fast 183 would be a difficult prospect to defend, but Dandenong held its ground.
It would be Pattinson (3/28), this time with the ball, once again standing up to protect his side’s total, with Doran (2/36) spinning out Geelong captain Matt Harrison (51) and Khalid Sawas (16) to keep the game alive.
The final runs were eked out by the lower tail as Matt Gunther (17 not out) and Marc Carson (7 not out) got the job done with two overs spare.
Dandenong will look to bounce back this week against Ringwood at Russell Lucas Oval on Saturday for another one-dayer.
