Premier Cricket 2018-19: Soft pitch delays the start of grand final rematch between Dandenong and Fitzroy-Doncaster
The Premier Cricket grand final rematch between Dandenong and Fitzroy-Doncaster started an hour late on Saturday. Here’s why.
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IT was a day of tough, demanding cricket between two of the Premier competition’s most respected and successful teams.
By the end of play, Dandenong had edged ahead in the Round 12 match, but still with work to do to defeat feisty Fitzroy-Doncaster at Shepley Oval.
In a rematch of last season’s grand final, the Panthers will pick up on the second day at 4-102, needing to pass 159 to gain badly needed points.
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And when they resume they’ll presumably do so on a pitch more trustworthy than Saturday’s; it was so soft that the umpires ruled it unfit for the 11am start of play.
They delayed it to 12pm after some attention from the curator, who had watered the wicket on Friday and covered it with hessian. An absence of late-afternoon sun apparently messed with his preparation.
Dandy skipper Tom Donnell unsurprisingly asked the visitors to bat and the difficulty of the task confronting the opening batsmen became clear in the second over when a Jake Thomas delivery reared at Matt Bremner and pinged him on the finger.
Bremner and Jack Rudd started positively, defending with soft hands, but launching at anything short from English paceman Josh Shaw.
Every ball they negotiated brought raucous encouragement from teammates watching from the grandstand.
But Shaw got one to lift at Rudd (13) and he was brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Jacques Augustin against his former club.
Bremner (18) also went to an Augustin catch, trying to leave a delivery that appeared to take his glove.
The technically pleasing Noah Korkolis and an attacking Nat Vardi steered the Lions to 2-73, only for Panthers left-arm spinner Akshat Buch to intervene.
He found appreciable turn to gain an edge from Korkolis (15) and make another catch for Augustin. And he bowled an advancing Vardi, whose 30 included 5 fours and a hooked six off Shaw.
From there Dandenong met resistance only from all-rounder Trent Lawford.
The big fellow went out to bat with the score at 5-100 and was unbeaten on a run-a-ball 56. He took a particular liking to Thomas, pulling him for six and drilling a hat-trick ball over mid-off for another boundary-clearer. A slash over slips for four followed.
Thomas was searching for three wickets in three balls after having Lions skipper Ejaaz Alavi caught behind for a duck — the victim of another kicker — and knocking over Sam Elliott.
Shaw returned to remove Chris Moore and Zac Parr, leaving Lawford stranded as he finished with 3-34 off 9.4 overs.
Buch was the best of the bowlers and had the best figures: 3-24 off 21. Thomas had 2-51 off nine, Nanopoulos 1-22 off eight and Peter Cassidy 1-23 off nine.
The Dandenong innings began with some crisp stroke play from Brett Forsyth and Tom Donnell, Forsyth creaming a cover drive to the boundary, Donnell cutting fiercely to the fence.
Still, it was still common to see the ball leap off the pitch.
Elliott, 18, right-arm and sharp, replaced Lawford from the creek end and went at Forsyth with some short stuff.
The opener pasted him over point for six, but Elliott wasn’t discouraged. In his second over he knocked over Forsyth (18), whose timbers aren’t often disturbed.
Elliott, watched on by his father, former Test man Matthew, had another scalp in his second over when Josh Slater (6), looking to play on the on-side, was caught at slip.
Donnell looked in terrific touch, assured in defence and punishing in attack. But he was out for 28, hooking Lawford to Parr at fine leg.
LJ Edwards looked to be handling the bowling with similar ease. But he was dismissed in similar fashion to his captain, hooking Parr to Chris Moore after striding to 25 off 30 balls, with 4 fours. The innings was a summary of Edwards’ season; he’s good to watch but he’s averaging 20-odd.
The Lions could easily have had a fifth wicket when Nanopoulos hit through the air past mid-on; the fieldsman jumped like fat in a frying pan, but the ball was out of his reach.
Nanopoulos (12) and Cam Forsyth (7) took Dandenong through to the 6.30pm close, still 58 away from victory. It will take an exceptional first hour from the Lions to deny the home team first-innings points.
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