By Tyler Lewis
A culmination of class, tactical brilliance and grunt handed Dandenong its first win of the Victorian Premier Cricket season on Saturday.
After a strong finish with the ball in round 1, Brett Forsyth sent Footscray in and straight away the changes to the approach with the ball were noticeable.
Suraj Randiv took the second over of the match and was immediately on the money, having Dogs superstar Dean Russ searching for bat on ball and not finding it from the spinners early line and length.
Having some trouble from the tweakers’ tight bowling, Russ found a way at the other end against Jakeb Thomas, dancing down the wicket to the quick and slapping him through and over cover in sensational fashion.
But Thomas continued to toil away on a challenging length and was rewarded with the scalp of the other opener Daniel Sartori.
When the first wicket fell and Travis Dean met Russ in the middle, a moment of balance in the match as the pair had been so difficult to remove.
But it was Peter Cassidy’s endless stump to stump bowling that forced a false stroke out of Russ and claimed the big wicket before he could reach 50.
With only a singular run added following the big wicket of Russ, Ed Newman and James Nanopoulos combined after a mix up between the wickets to remove Dean for less than 10.
Footscray skipper Dylan Kight and patient left-hander Matt Underwood steadied the ship in the middle overs but pleasingly for the Panthers were doing so without adding much scoreboard pressure.
Dandenong found some vital overs in the middle out of Lincoln Edwards, lightening the work load for the likes of Cassidy, Nanopoulos and Thomas at the back end of the innings.
When Randiv came back on to combine with Akshat Buch, Randiv broke the 51-run partnership by sending Kight back to the sheds for 28.
In his following over he removed James Muirhead to get the Panthers assertively on top of the innings.
Underwood begun to accelerate once he closed in on his half-century and burst away following the milestone, and combining with Hamish Winter-Irving, the Dogs wrestled back some momentum.
A late onslaught by Winter-Irving (28 not out from 15 balls) had the Dogs set 8/200 on what loomed to be a true wicket.
With four runs per over needed, Brett Forsyth wasted no time to get the first overs required runs when he effortlessly caressed the first ball of the innings through the offside to the fence.
The elegant opener then powerfully pushed another boundary through the offside before his briefly entertaining innings was brought to a close on 14.
Ed Newman shortly followed his opening partner in the pavilion placing the Panthers in some early trouble.
At 2/21 Comrey Edgeworth and Lincoln Edwards faced a monstrous climb to avoid a winless start to the season after two rounds.
Steaming the bleeding at the beginning of their respective innings, it didn’t take long before the grace and supremacy shun through.
Ticking them over quite solidly, the pair begun to put some serious doubt in the minds of the Footscray players.
Dylan Kight turned to his frontline spinner in ex-Australian James Muirhead, and Edgeworth welcomed him to the attack by sending him to the fence first ball and the pair combined to take his first over for 10 runs.
In his following over, Edgeworth dispatched him over the rope after given him the freedom of a free hit.
After scoring at a blistering rate off his bowling, the pair hit Muirhead from the attack with the figures 0/29 from three overs.
The pair both cruised to half-centuries and had set up a magnificent victory.
But to add to the theatre of the match, Edgeworth fell just after his milestone and short of the target, which brought Nanopoulos to the crease.
He nudged the ball around and played a wonderful role to the set Edwards before he fell just 24 short of the target.
Cam Forsyth removed all glimmers of a collapse by knocking the ball around and finishing the job that was set up earlier by a superb 54 from Edgeworth and an unbeaten 79 from Edwards.
At 4/190, Forsyth took the weight off the shoulders of Edwards by hitting the last 10 runs to secure the Panthers victory.
Skipper Brett Forsyth was pleased with the performances of Edgeworth and Edwards for their temperament and poise to resurrect the innings.
“LJ was phenomenal,” he said.
“Comrey as well, but for LJ to finish not out. Obviously it wasn’t an ideal start to lose a couple early wickets but we had a plan to score while the ball was still hard.
“(We were) hoping it would come off but this time it didn’t and to be fair to Footscray they bowled well early.
“(Being) 2/21 was not ideal but I was fairly confident in the middle order we have, I was confident but I was relieved once LJ and Comrey started getting into a comfortable position.”
After a stunning bowling performance last week, Suraj Randiv took the new ball while his spinning counterpart Akshat Buch held the run rate at bay during the middle overs, an approach with the ball that Forsyth’s Panthers will access each week depending on the wicket.
“We kind of knew going into the season it is something we might employ,” he said.
“We thought about taking wickets in the first 15 and Jakeb Thomas bowled well, getting the breakthrough of Sartori and Randiv at the end beat the bat of Russ a few times and Russ was in sublime form.
“It just showed that Randiv up front was a really good option and whether or not we do it every week it will be based on the conditions to see what will help us get wickets.”
Dandenong will be hoping to finish the weekend inside the top eight with this weekend’s double headers against Northcote on Saturday at Shepley Oval and Casey South-Melbourne at Casey Fields.
