Premier Cricket: Dandenong sets towering target for Casey South Melbourne at Casey Fields

JAMES Nanopoulos, Tom Donnell and LJ Edwards hit half-centuries as Dandenong plundered the Casey South Melbourne bowling attack.

Dandenong did as it was bade.

Asked to bat by Casey South Melbourne on Saturday, the Panthers batted their way to a towering total at Casey Fields. In doing so, they battered the Swans bowling.

Opener Tom Donnell, No 4 LJ Edwards and No 6 James Nanopoulos all made half-centuries for Dandy and Akshat Buch (48no) was on course to do the same before skipper Donnell declared at 8-369 off 90 overs.

He wanted to have a three-over dart at the home team, but Casey South Melbourne openers Luke Wells and Ryan Quirk got through the testing period and will pick up a long chase today (Sunday).

Dandenong’s Jacques Augustin deals with a short ball. Picture: Valeriu Campan

By lunch Dandenong had lost opener Brett Forsyth (25) and first drop Ed Newman (2), both falling to Jackson Fry, but it had 102 on the board.

When play resumed the stylish Edwards produced a flurry of boundaries, starting with a square drive off the pacy Nathan Lambden.

Two cover drives followed off Fry, then he pulled the left-armer over mid-on and cut young offie Jonah Serong for four.

A punch off the back foot also sent the ball to the fence, and Edwards brought up his 50 with a blast through mid-off. He’d faced 61 balls.

He was doing it rather brilliantly, his bat apparently all middle. Donnell was happy to give him the bowling but he also looked assured on a wicket giving little assistance to the bowlers.

And then, shock of shocks, Edwards was out for 57 (73 balls, 12 fours), LBW to Wells to a ball that skidded on.

It was also a surprise when 12 runs later Donnell fell for 73 (125 balls, 12 fours), playing back to Serong and being bowled. An hour later the skipper was still shaking his head about his dismissal, which left Dandy 4-164.

Casey South Melbourne left-armer James Maxwell.

They lost another wicket in the middle session, when Cam Forsyth (29) hooked at medium pacer James Maxwell and was well caught by a running Serong on the boundary.

But Nanopoulos, on the ground where he made his first and only Premier Cricket century, looked as comfortable as a man ambling down the driveway to collect the mail.

He was 33 at tea and, accompanied for a time by Jacques Augustin (17), hurtled along in a run-filled final session.

As thoughts turned to the prospect of him hitting another century at Casey Fields, he was bowled trying to lift Fry into the next suburb. His 86 came off 118 deliveries and included 10 fours.

Darren Pattinson replaced him and cracked 23 off 12 balls as Buch (48 off 84 deliveries, with 7 fours) closed in on a half-century.

It was tough going for the Casey South Melbourne bowlers until Donnell made the declaration.

Lambden thought he had Donnell LBW with the very first ball of the day. He ended up going wicketless and for 79 runs off his 19 overs.

Fortune favoured Fry when he got Forsyth caught behind — the consensus later was there was no edge — but he had Newman snaffled at third slip and finished with 3-61 off 12 overs.

It was disappointing for Newman to miss out given he had batted so well for Victoria in the Futures League match during the week. When he did a walk of the ground with coach Nick Speak after his dismissal they presumably weren’t comparing how they were shaping up in the quaddie at Sandown.

Wells (1-56 off 17 overs) bowled a good spell of brisk spin through the middle session and Lachie Sperling (2-51 off 14 overs) picked up Augustin and Pattinson.

Some hot words between “Patto’’ and Englishman Wells late in the day added spice to the clash between the regional rivals.

Play resumes today at 11am.