By Marcus Uhe
A pair of wins for Dandenong in T20 contests on Saturday put the Panthers back on the Premier Cricket Victoria winners’ list for the first time in nearly a month.
Dandenong held its nerve in both contests where they executed better under pressure with corresponding disciplines to record a thrilling seven-wicket win over Casey South Melbourne in the morning match, and then later by three runs against Essendon in a rain-affected game.
Gehan Seneviratne was the hero in win over Casey, bowling four overs of suffocating leg spin and taking a brilliant juggling catch on the rope, before hitting the winning runs on the penultimate delivery of the match to seal a tense result.
With four runs required off the final two balls, he nailed a straight drive past veteran left-arm quick Jackson Fry towards his nervous teammates beyond the long-on boundary, who rode the ball home like jockeys on a winning horse and erupted into cheers as it reached the rope, having completed the task at hand.
A tricky batting surface and a 9.30am start gave Dandenong the better of conditions with the ball against Casey South Melbourne, where they kept the Swans to 9/144.
No Casey South Melbourne partnership passed 50 and no batter reached 40 as the continual flow of wickets stymied efforts to build momentum at Casey Fields.
Sam Newell’s quick-thinking behind the stumps ran out Luke Shelton on 27 and Ruwantha Kellapotha was removed shortly after for 37 after hitting a low return catch to Seneviratne.
Seneviratne and spin twin Vishwa Ramkumar bowled brilliantly during the middle overs and made life incredibly tough for Swans batters to establish their innings, with accurate and probing deliveries that challenged the stumps and were tough to hit away.
After crossing triple figures for the loss of just three wickets, the back half of the Swans’ innings saw them waste solid foundations made by the top order, with batters number five to 10 combining for just 42 runs.
Veteran James Nanopoulos finished with 3/20 from four overs as the best-performed Panthers bowler while Ramkumar’s 0/17 from his four reflected the high esteem in which he’s held in the eyes of pathway coaches.
The chase, while not a huge total, was anything but a simple affair, with the contest not settled until the final over of the innings.
Where the home side lost wickets in the pursuit of quick runs, Dandenong’s opening pair Matthew Wilson and Shobit Singh showed some restraint by playing balls on their merit and picking gaps in the field with conventional cricket shots.
Singh departed just as he appeared to find his rhythm, skying a cut shot into the gloves of Devin Pollock, having lifted Kellapotha for a glorious six over cover just a handful of deliveries prior.
Wilson rode his luck, meanwhile, surviving dropped chances by Kellapotha early in his stay, and from Matthew Calder on 29, before Kellapotha made amends when he reached 35.
Their departures saw Nanopoulos join forces with an established Brett Forsyth at the crease with 48 runs required from the final 36 deliveries.
The experienced heads navigated the situation well, finding the occasional boundary and rotating the strike well as Luke Shelton turned to his leaders in Kellapotha and Nathan Lambden for breakthroughs.
The Swans dropped their fielding standards as minor errors snowballed, as the Panthers’ pair continued to chip away at the target.
Wickets in hand meant they could play with some reservations but the longer the innings went, the more tense the setting at Casey Fields became.
Kellapotha bowled a brilliant 16th over for the Swans, conceding just three runs from the first five deliveries but Nanopoulos ensured the Panthers finished the set of six with the upper hand, advancing down the wicket to find the boundary rope for the first time.
The 17th over yielded another seven, leaving 27 runs needed from the final 18.
The 18th was a wild one from Jack Stevenson, conceding just five off the bat but another five in extras in what was a 10-ball over.
Forsyth departed at the end of the 19th, leaving Nanopoulos and a fresh-to-the-crease Seneviratne to finish the job, with nine required from the final over.
Fry bowled tight lines and offered few boundary-hitting opportunities early in the over for Nanopoulos, who threw caution to the wind by taking a leg bye on the fourth ball, giving his new partner the strike, with four required from the last two.
His faith in Seneviratne was rewarded, however, who was as cool as they come in banking the points for Dandenong at the first opportunity.
Forsyth topscored with 46 from 38 deliveries for the Panthers in what was their first win over the Swans in the game’s shortest format since 2016.
There was no time for celebrations, however, with Dandenong’s second contest of the day, against Essendon, scheduled to begin in just over an hour’s time.
Essendon sent the Panthers in to bat once more, but only Wilson could find a foothold in slippery conditions on the second asking.
Wilson topscored with 59 in a rain-shortened innings as Dandenong could only muster 8/105.
Half an hour of play was lost due to a rain delay in the Panthers’ innings with the contest reduced to 16 overs per side.
Forsyth’s 15 was the highest score beyond Wilson’s, leaving the bowlers with a huge challenge in front of them to notch a second win of the afternoon.
Nanopoulos made a dream start with the ball by removing the Essendon opening pair in the first three overs, and the innings failed to get off the ground with consistent wickets falling throughout.
Ramkumar and Seneviratne were economical and attacking once more, with no Bombers partnership passing 20.
Playing the role Wilson did for Essendon, however, was Connor Poulton.
The Bombers’ number four saw partners come and go but remained his side’s primary hope of getting them over the line.
As wickets fell around him, he increased his strike rate the longer he stayed at the wicket, with a flurry of boundaries in the final four overs dragging his side back into the hunt.
With 18 runs required from the last over, Poulton made spectators edge forward in their chairs with thick-edged boundaries off Nathan Whitford’s opening two balls to draw the equation back to an outside chance.
He attempted a third boundary behind square on the third delivery, but Whitford executed a wide yorker brilliantly and escaped with a dot ball.
They ran two with a leg-side heave on the fourth, with now eight required from the last two balls.
Two boundaries would have had the Bombers home, but another sensational wide yorker by Whitford ensured the task was impossible on the final ball, with eight runs required.
Poulton nailed a four on the last delivery, finally executing the shot he wanted, but it was to no avail, as the Panthers made it two wins from two matches.
Seneviratne joined Nanopoulos in taking three wickets in the defence.
The T20 portion of the season continues next week, with Dandenong hosting Kingston Hawthorn and Geelong at Shepley Oval.
