By Nick Creely
Dandenong’s rollicking start to the season continued on the weekend, with the Panthers sitting atop the Premier Cricket ladder after eight rounds.
With the season moving into two weekends of Twenty20 cricket – with both Saturday and Sunday games – the first weekend couldn’t have gone any better for the Panthers.
On Saturday, the Panthers’ match with Melbourne was abandoned at the Albert Ground after just 13.1 overs, with storms across the city forcing a premature end to the clash.
But it was Sunday – this time baked in sunshine – that the Panthers showed nerves of steel to defeat Prahran and cement their standing as the team to beat.
Down at Shepley Oval, Panthers captain Tom Donnell elected to bat, and the home side got off to a perfect start, with Brett Forsyth (22) and Donnell (11) getting off to a swift start and finding the boundaries, but the True Blues snared the pair in quick succession to force the Panthers into a middle order stumble.
The Panthers lost 5/32 – including the key wickets of James Nanopoulos (7), Steven Mullaney (8), Lincoln Edwards (10) and Ed Newman (1) to be hanging precariously at 7/69.
Akshat Buch proved he’s no slouch with the bat to compile a quickfire 18, while Peter Cassidy (11) and Darren Pattinson (12) helped get the Panthers to an underpar – yet competitive – 112.
And as the Panthers are continuing to showcase to the competition, they are capable of winning from any position.
With energy high and the bowling tight, the Panthers defended the modest total in stunning fashion, with Cassidy (3/22), Jak Jowett (2/21), Pattinson (1/21) and Nanopoulos (1/11) restricting the True Blues to 7/109 at the end of their allotted 20 overs.
Skipper Donnell was proud of his side’s fight, and resolve to win at all costs.
“The main message (in the field) was just to never give up no matter what the situation of the game is,” he said.
“And to the guys credit that’s exactly what happened.”
Donnell admitted it would have been a nice challenge for his group to play out the game against the Demons on Saturday, but couldn’t be any prouder of the performance on Sunday.
“It would have been a big challenge for us against a good side (Melbourne), but it was a very pleasing win on Sunday,” he said.
“We didn’t make as many runs as we should have but the bowlers and fielders did an awesome job restricting Prahran.”
And there is no stopping the momentum, according to Donnell, who wants to keep winning in a competition where finals spots are so precious.
“I’m very happy with the start to the year, it’s important to bank as many points as you can early on and we’ve been lucky enough to do that,” he said.
“With the ladder so tight we need to keep winning to reach our aim of playing finals.”
The Panthers will play Footscray on Saturday and Fitzroy Doncaster on Sunday, in what looms as a challenging weekend.
