By Nick Creely
Dandenong has punished a high-quality Melbourne bowling attack, in a fierce display at Shepley Oval, as a certain star Aussie dominated again.
Throughout the soul-searching and testing times in James Pattinson’s career, it seems that the prodigious talent has gone away and added another string to his bow.
It’s been a long time coming for one of the quickest bowlers in the country, if not the planet, but throughout a gruelling two years, he has come back a better rounded and more impactful cricketer.
Although Patto has always handled the blade with confidence, as the public has seen throughout his test appearances with Australia, this season the Aussie quick is becoming a bona-fide all-rounder.
And at Shepley Oval on Saturday, against a strong Melbourne bowling outfit, Pattinson played one of the knocks of the season, scoring his second century of the year, this time making 131 off 200 balls.
His 137 in the Twenty20 against Ringwood was something extraordinary, but this innings was different in so many ways.
It wasn’t just the manner in which he seamlessly caressed the ball to all parts, but it was his ability to steady the ship and weather the storm.
He came in at 3/41, with stars Brett Forsyth (16) and skipper Tom Donnell (0) back in the sheds, and set about resurrecting the innings.
Teaming up with the consistent Lincoln Edwards (78), the pair showed why the Panthers are truly the team to beat, notching up a 144-run partnership, and the home side never looked back, racking up 8/361 by stumps.
Other strong contributors were Cameron Forsyth (70), who continued his impressive form, and Jacques Augustin (20), who chimed in late with some nice stroke-play.
Forsyth said that the group was happy with its day’s work, and is confident the bowlers can come to the party next week.
“We are happy with the score, especially being 3/40 really early on, we thought we did well to get to 360 – the coach and the boys were happy with that,” he said.
“It’s almost a 12-point game to be honest, but we can’t take anything for granted – last week the top-side lost to the bottom-side outright so anything can happen.
“Obviously Melbourne has some big names but our bowlers are confident we will get enough opportunities to take ten wickets.”
But the real story of the day was Pattinson, who has now made 502 runs at 62.8 this season, with two centuries and two fifties to his name.
“I’ve seen Patto play a few games as a batsman, and he’s always been a quality bat – he’d probably be the first to admit he hasn’t got it all together for us previously, so it’s been great to watch him become one of the better batsmen in the comp,” Forsyth explained.
“He loves Dandenong and pushes us to give it all a crack, and he brings us a level of professionalism – Patto has a commanding presence on the field, it’s great to play with him and feed off his experience.
“He is coming off a five-for last week, I was fielding at short leg most of last week and he bowled very fast.”
