RICHMOND will be relying on other results to keep its Premier Cricket season alive entering the final day of its last-round clash with Dandenong Panthers this Saturday.
Batting first, the Tigers were bowled out for 119 at Shepley Oval with Panthers captain Darren Pattinson (5-13 from 15 overs) running a wrecking ball through the Tigers' middle order. Andrew Delmont was the top scorer with 27 not out .
In their first innings together all season, Panthers openers Brett Forsyth (35 not out) and Tom Donnell (46 not out) celebrated their reunion by putting on a quick-fire 0-82 in the final 26 overs to have their side within 38 runs of a first-innings win.
Tigers coach Jarrad Loughman said his side had to put in a good week at training and come back on the second day focused on getting the best result possible.
"We have to try and turn it around and it's something we can turn around," he said.
"It would be a dream to think we could do a reverse outright, but it would be somewhere there in the background. If you could somehow get into a position where that is possible then great, but I think it will be more we are now relying on other results.
"At the end of the day if you get into the finals playing like this you have to ask how far we would go. Then again, Dandenong went into the finals a couple of years ago after several losses and ended up winning it, so you never know."
Pattinson said he had turned to using reverse swing after struggling to get edges with the new ball. "We needed a few wickets. Luckily enough I managed to get a few when we needed them," he said.
"The ball was reverse swinging, so I was trying to use that.
"We went conventional and tried to nick them out but that wasn't working, so I tried to hit the stumps and it paid off for us.
"We needed to get them out for under 200, so 119 was a bonus."
Loughman praised Pattinson's performance as a sign of his class.
"Banjo [Pattinson] is far too good for this level and, to be fair to our guys, he was far too good today," he said. "We didn't quite apply ourselves and ended up with 119 runs."
Hawthorn-Monash University faced Prahran's batsmen in top form on Saturday as the True Blues put on 5-345 from 72.2 overs at Monash University Oval.
Daniel Salpietro (100 not out), Neil Schlittler (85) and David Hussey (53) all showed their quality.
In reply the Hawks reached stumps at 2-40 with Jake Marnie (21) leading the way before being dismissed.
Rhys Adams took both wickets for the True Blues.
Both matches resume at noon this Saturday.