By ROY WARD
IN Saturday’s Premier Cricket Dandenong Panthers paid the price for not taking care of Carlton’s tail-end batsmen.
The Panthers’ run chase was left short when they were bowled out for 222 by the Blues, whose 10th wicket pair put on 79 on the first day to push their total to 258.
Panthers captain Tom Donnell said his side had rued giving up so many runs on the first day but had its chances to chase the total, only to lose wickets in quick succession.
“I thought we started pretty well but then we lost 4-13, which really slowed us down,” Donnell said. “I think that was the pattern after that.
“We had a couple of good partnerships but lost too many wickets in quick succession. We were about 30 runs short and didn’t bat as well as we should have.”
Panthers opener Charith Cooray (79) batted for a large part of the day after he and Donnell (45) put on 73 for the first wicket.
Donnell praised the Blues’ bowling attack. “They have a quality attack, the best we have faced so far.”
Panthers opener Brett Forsyth, who has been kept from the field by a knee injury, is also getting closer to a return to the side.
Donnell said Forsyth was selected for a thirds match played yesterday and was hoping to return to the first XI before Christmas.
“Brett has been batting in the nets for a couple of weeks now and is getting more and more movement in his knee. He hopes to get a couple of games in before Christmas. He will add strength to our batting.”
Donnell said captain Darren Pattinson was hopeful of playing in the Panthers’ Twenty20 matches this Saturday at Morwell in Premier Cricket’s T20 Bush Bash.
“Those matches are for points, so they are very important. We’ve drawn the short straw and got the early game and the late game. It’s an eight-point day and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
The Panthers play Fitzroy-Doncaster and Casey-South Melbourne in two Twenty20 matches at Morwell Recreation Reserve on Saturday. The first game is at 9.30am.
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