By Tyler Lewis
AROUND THE GROUNDS
VICTORIAN PREMIER CRICKET
ROUND 15 (DAY TWO)
“We played well, bowled well, but we can’t look back on the afternoon and say it was defining – the games earlier on in the season cost us.”
Dandenong skipper Tom Donnell isn’t blaming Saturday’s nail-biting draw for why the Panthers will be absent from the 2019/20 Victorian Premier Cricket finals series.
After Monash claimed first innings points over Essendon at stumps on day-one last week, the equation was simple for Dandenong.
Take 10 wickets on Saturday and if Monash bat the day out, the Panthers will play finals cricket.
And in the minutes after tea, when Monash had completed its victory over Essendon, and Suraj Randiv claimed two wickets in four balls to put the Saints eight down, it seemed Dandenong was on cusp of completing the impossible.
Number 10 Will Lovell strode to the crease with a nudge under 30 overs remaining in the day, St Kilda skipper Adam Crosthwaite starting farming the strike, pushing the ball half-way to the fence and sending the left-hander back.
Ed Newman got alarmingly close to the bat under the lid, as balls weren’t travelling off the wicket from Crosthwaite and Lovell’s bat.
When the Panthers took the new ball after 80 overs, it was expected the fighting charade would conclude.
But Lovell and Crosthwaite continued to hold firm.
With the possibility of only six balls left in the season, Donnell threw the ball to James Nanopoulos, who entered the day needing only one scalp to make the club wicket record his own and had yet to jag a victim throughout the day.
Crosthwaite saw out the final six, striking the second last ball for four making a Panthers win impossible.
Of the 96 overs bowled throughout the day, the Saints saw out 43 maidens in its fighting draw, 18 of those coming from tweaker Randiv.
It was a rollercoaster of emotions for Donnell, especially in the final session.
“I felt pretty confident when Randiv got the first two (after tea),” he said.
“After we took the new ball, the wicket wasn’t offering a lot; there wasn’t much happening with the new ball with 16 overs to go.
“Within 10 overs to go, I thought ‘it is getting pretty tight here’.
“Then with five to seven overs left I thought ‘this could be a struggle’.
“In a sense I think we may have bowled too well early.”
While the Panthers next weekend hinged on the final match of the home and away season, Donnell believes his side shouldn’t have been in the do-or-die situation, while saying not one specific game that got away bobs up, but a few.
“There is probably a few that come to mind, I think we lost two games with the opposition nine down,” he said.
“Obviously that hurts, the opposition played well, then the game against Casey where we cruising and then just fell away also.
“There is three games there, if one of them goes our way then things are different, I suppose it was meant to be, previous seasons we have been opposite ends of luck where we have had those wins.
“This year we weren’t able to get those close wins and it shows at the end, disappointing but that is the way cricket goes.”
Dandenong coach Nick Speak after the game stood down as Panthers head coach, and while Donnell is saddened by his departure, he is extremely grateful for the impact ‘Speaky’ had on the club in his tenure.
“He (Nick Speak) told me a week or so ago that he was going to finish up,” he said.
“He has been fantastic; I think we might have missed finals maybe two years in a row before he came, the first year we finished second, lost to Melbourne in the qualifying final which was sort of disappointing.
“The next year we managed to go on and win the flag, and the white ball flag which was a great achievement.
“Then last year to finish top four but be bundled out of finals, even this year, we haven’t been thrashed or anything like that, we have always been competitive.
“He brought a lot of knowledge to the group about the game, he brought LJ (Lincoln Edwards) across from Melbourne and he has been fantastic for the group, he (Speak) is going to be missed.
“His imprint on the game is going to be missed.”
In Casey-South Melbourne’s final weekend of the season, meanwhile, the Swans went down to Melbourne Uni at the University Main Oval.
After amassing 211 on day one, the Students raced down the target with just the one wicket loss – Fergus McKenna crunched an unbeaten 114 not out.
The Swans finished the season in 15th spot after a drop off after Christmas and with just the three wins next to their name. Luke Wells (773 runs) and Josh Dowling (16 wickets) were the leading players for the season for batting and bowling.
VICTORIAN SUB-DISTRICT – EAST/WEST
QUALIFYING FINALS
Noble Park has been knocked out of the premiership race by a rampaging Yarraville outfit.
In the finals clash at Yarraville Oval on the weekend, the home side posted 178 in the first dig, with Noble Park gun Nishantha Weerakkody (7/50) producing one of the performances of the season.
But the home side were just far too good on day two, picking up a wicket off the first ball of the Noble Park innings to roll the visitors for just 93, with Rayner Seccull (24) fighting hard through the middle.
MORNINGTON PENINSULA – PENINSULA DIVISION
ROUND 14
Pearcedale ended its horror season with yet another heavy loss, this time to Main Ridge.
The Dales finished the season without a win and have now been relegated for the second season in a row.
In Saturday’s final round, the Dales won the toss and elected to bat, and were rolled for just 69 with Oliver McEncroe (5/14) dominating.
It took just 14.4 overs for the visitors to race the total down and with just the one wicket loss.
Red Hill, Somerville, Long Island and Pines will kick off the semi-final action on Saturday.
