By Tyler Lewis and Nick Creely
AROUND THE GROUNDS
VICTORIAN PREMIER CRICKET
ROUND 5 (DAY TWO)
Although James Nanopoulos ran riot with the ball against a star stuttered Geelong side, Dandenong still face an uphill battle to claim victory on Saturday.
With overhead conditions unavoidable and a wicket that in recent times has misbehaved, returning skipper Tom Donnell won the toss and sent the Cats in.
It took only two Jakeb Thomas deliveries for the decision to pay off with the big quick sending Geelong’s opener Mitch Reid back to the shed inside the first over of the day.
But it was the elegance and experience of James Nanopoulos who did the brunt of the damage from then on.
Nanopoulos claimed two wickets in the space of three balls to change the game early on and move the Cats to 3/19 – his figures at that stage, 2/2 from five.
With Eamonn Vines dead batting everything at one end, gloveman Josh McDonald opted to fight fire with fire by going after the likes of Peter Cassidy in an attempt to shift momentum.
Cassidy ultimately got his man when the right-hander spooned a drive to the debutant in Zac Grundmann-Perera at mid-off.
When Vines was trapped in front LBW, Nanopoulos had three and looked merely impossible for the batsman to score from, let alone survive.
All concerns of the threat of the Dandenong bowling attack washed away with the quick claiming 7/43 from 15.5 overs and assisting heavily in bundling the Cats out for 155.
The wicket looked an extremely difficult batting deck and it was proven in the Panthers reply, when Brett Forsyth was the early wicket.
Comrey Edgeworth and Tom Donnell nudged the ball around before Edgeworth was dismissed leg before.
Through Edwards and the returning skipper, the Panthers were able to scrounge to 2/42 – before Geelong’s Dom McGlinchey took it upon himself to challenge the stupendous figures of Nanopoulos.
The quick took 4/4 in the space of 12 deliveries to rattle the middle order of the Panthers.
Ed Newman’s difficult season continued with another scoreless knock, while Grundmann-Perera didn’t have the dream debut innings as the two were among the scalps of McGlinchey.
While chaos embarked at one end, Tom Donnell could only watch on from the other as his side crumbled from 2/42 to 6/50.
Rain finished pay early in what seemed to be a batsman nightmare of a day. 16 wickets falling for only 209 runs conceded.
James Nanopoulos was the shining strong on a very dark day, the Panthers were placed in a strong position from his bowling performance.
The superstar told Star News Group what was going through his mind when he was running through the Geelong batting card before swiftly deferring the attention away from his mesmeric spell.
“It was a bowler’s dominated contest that’s for sure,” he said
“I generally always try and hit the stumps.
“(I was thinking) Keep doing what I am doing really, I was able to get the ball up there and trying to hit the stumps as much as possible.
“Especially when a new batsman comes to the creases, to hit the stumps, challenge their defence as much as possible.
“It is always hard when the ball is doing a little bit but I was able to do that as much as possible and got some good reward for it.
“Early on when (Eamonn) Vines was in I probably bowled wide to him and he left really well, (I) had to change that up a bit and make sure I was hitting the stumps.
“I have been around a fair while now so I have to pick up some of the slack that Darren (Pattinson) has left and lead the young guys by example.
“I have bowled pretty ordinary to be fair, picked up wickets at the end in the one dayers, but was lucky enough to cash in on Saturday which was pleasing.
“The kids are going well, Jakeb Thomas has really stepped up this year going well with the new ball, he has been a real shining light and hopefully he can continue forward,” Nanopoulos said.
Play is set to resume with the Panthers at 6/54 and Tom Donnell unbeaten on 27, the left-hander has the ability to accelerate an innings or anchor one, the big question looms of at what stage does the champion open the bag of tricks and try to get the remainder of the 102 required from his own blade.
Only just down the South Gippsland Highway, Casey-South Melbourne has its backs against the wall against a star-studded Carlton team on day with several rain delays.
With play unable to get underway until 12.15pm due to a ferocious late morning shower, Blues skipper Evan Gulbis had little hesitation in sending the Swans into bat, with his supreme bowling outfit ready to unleash.
Luke Wells and Devin Pollock strolled to the middle to face a bowling trio consisting of quicks Cam Stevenson, Evan Gulbis and Xavier Crone, who have a combined 29 First Class matches between them, with Crone making his Victorian debut just a week ago.
Stevenson got the ball to talk early, snicking off Pollock to keeper Brayden Stepien, but Wells – and his experience vice-captain Nathan Freitag – dug deep to guide the home side to lunch at 1/37, and with a platform to launch after lunch.
With spits and spurts of heavy rain making life difficult, Freitag looked assured after the break, particularly in driving through the covers off an electric bowling outfit.
But just as the rain got heavier and the players were preparing to come off, Luke Wells chipped one back to spinner Tom Smyth to depart for a well-made 31. Only minutes after the rain interval, in-form batsman Joel Mitchell shouldered arms and was given LBW, and suddenly the home side were 3/73.
Freitag continued to show plenty of class, crunching Stevenson for consecutive boundaries through the off-side to reach his maiden first XI half-century of the season, but only moments after Michael Wallace was undone by a ripping short ball by the Blues quick, had a brain fade off Smyth to depart for 52.
At 5/101, the Swans continued to lose wickets at an alarming rate despite a crisp 26 from Jordan Wyatt. But enter Nathan Lambden.
The Swans spearhead – blessed with grit and plenty of heart – once again provided valuable late-order runs, crunching his second first XI half-century of his career, combining superbly with the tail to eventually bring the home side to 190, with Stevenson eventually prizing Lambden (53) out to finish with four wickets.
Lambden also notched up a vital 41 against Essendon in Round 3, and is slowly and surely becoming an important component of the batting side.
The Blues survived seven testing overs before stumps, finishing 0/20, with the dangerous Brayden Stepien sitting 11 not out.
MPCA – PENSINSULA DIVISION
ROUND 3 (DAY TWO)
Although suffering a comfortable defeat, Pearcedale showed promising signs in the second week against Main Ridge, Not only avoiding a threatening outright but demonstrated some flair with the bat.
Main Ridge declared with a 98-run lead and 54 overs remaining in the day.
At 4/18 in reply, the Dales looked to be rolled over once more, but a fighting number of innings by Paul Filipone (29), Callum Bradford-Briggs (30) and Jarryd Herbert (30) wiped away any chances of a disastrous start.
The Dales finished the 54th over at 8/118, avoiding an outright loss.
VICTORIAN SUB-DISTRICT – EAST/WEST
ROUND 2
Endeavour Hills suffered a heartbreaking loss at the hands of Altona.
The Hills posted 9/274 last week, but were chased down in the final over by Altona who finished 6/275.
Altona were in some early trouble at 2/35 but strong half-centuries to Greg Sheehan (69) and James Grubb (92 not out) guided the home side to victory.
Hemantha Jayasundera was the pick of the bowlers for the Hills with 3/75 from 26 overs.
WOMENS PREMIER CRICKET
ROUNDS 7 AND 8
Dandenong went 0-2 on the weekend when they took on the powerful Ringwood side.
The Panthers were sent in to kick off proceedings in the first match and posted a solid 6/106, Tiana Atkinson the pick of the batsman with 18 at the top of the order.
In reply, Rams skipper Bhavisha Devchand carried the innings home with a stirring unbeaten 52, as her side chased down the total in the 18th over.
The following fixture had Ringwood setting this time and after Dandenong superstar Emma Gallagher had 3/11, the Panthers were in the box seat needing 99 for victory.
But the Panthers fell nine runs short, finishing 9/99 at the end of its innings – Gallagher again leading the way with 27.
