By Marcus Uhe
Casey South Melbourne and Dandenong will square-off at Casey Fields on Saturday as Victorian Premier Cricket moves into its T20 era for the summer of 2024/25.
The contest is the first of three matches scheduled at each venue on Saturday, with Essendon the third side to join the two to complete the hat-trick of matches at Cranbourne.
Round six, seven and eight of the competition were abandoned due to weather.
The Swans have the wood over the Panthers in the two clubs’ recent contests, winning four of the last five, while Dandenong won the most-recent T20 contest between the two sides back in 2016.
Only a handful of players remain on either side from that encounter; Devin Pollock and Nathan Lambden for the Swans, Brett Forsyth and James Nanopoulos for Dandenong.
On that day, an excellent bowling effort from the Panthers – keeping Casey South Melbourne to 111 in the first innings thanks to James Pattinson’s 1/9 from four overs – made for a small run chase, despite taking nearly 19 overs to complete.
The current-day side has been marred by inconsistency this summer, yet to string together consecutive wins despite some impressive performances.
The bitter taste of their last outing – a 17-run loss to lowly Fitzroy Doncaster – dodged the prospect at being washed out last week, festering during a weekend of heavy rainfall.
Chasing 238, Dandenong could only muster 221 in reply, with Joshua Slater the only player to pass 50.
It was the Panthers’ only completed white-ball contest of the summer, after play in the second half of its contest against St Kilda in round one was abandoned.
Likewise, the Swans were poor in round five, dismissed for just 162 chasing 179 at home against Camberwell.
Ruwantha Kellapotha’s excellent summer continued with 5/35 but no batter on the home side passed 50.
Without a win since round three and having fallen to 10th on the table, the Swans risk losing touch with the top eight if they fail to rediscover winning form.
When the two met in a soggy opening round in 2023/24, Kellapotha and Forsyth stole the show with brilliant individual performances in a Swans win.
Kellapotha hit 109 as the Swans posted 5/264 and kept Dandenong to 5/241 in the chase, despite an unbeaten 135 from Forsyth.
The home side got 43 runs each from since-departed pair Harrish Kannan and Michael Wallace, while Dandenong handed out club debuts to young bowlers Vishwa Ramkumar, Noah Hurley and Ollie Jenkins.
Since then, Hurley has emerged as one of the state’s rising fast-bowling talents, and Vishwa Ramkumar represented Australia in Under 19s cricket in India.
The match is scheduled for a 9.30 start, with the Panthers to play Essendon at 1pm and Essendon to face the Swans at 4.30 to complete the trifecta.
Essendon is second-last on 10 points, without a win to show for their efforts this summer and the competition’s second-lowest net run rate.
