WE have come to the end of yet another Victorian Women’s Premier Cricket season, full of highs and lows. Now that the season has finished, let us take a look back at how the eight clubs went across the whole season, and how things went since their mid-season report cards.

Today we look at the 2020/21 champions Dandenong, who ultimately finished fifth in 2021/22.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, their slow start to the season really came back to bite them in the end.

Dandenong had a great back end to the 2021/22 season, winning six of its last eight matches. However, all those losses in the first half of the season meant that when it came down to the final round, the Panthers had the tough task of having to beat Melbourne in order to make finals. They could not beat them, resulting in a fifth place finish and more importantly, the end of their premiership defence having missed finals.

Top performers

From a batting perspective, Kimberley Garth only played the nine games, but still came on top in terms of most runs scored for the Panthers. She notched 295 runs at an average of 36.88. She scored a sole half-century, which would eventuate in her highest score for the season of 73.

Second on the list is Tiana Atkinson, whose unbeaten 112 in the opening round saw her go on to make 259 runs for the season at an average of 28.78.

Rounding out the top five batters for the season were Lucy Cripps, Chelsea Moscript and Uvindee Wijesena.  

Looking across to the bowling figures, Emma Gallagher topped the table for Dandenong. She took 19 wickets across the season with an economy rate of 3.17.

Second on the list is Moscript, who took only one less wicket than Gallagher did, and finished with an economy rate of 4.77.

Rounding out the top five bowlers for the season are Garth, Cripps and Poppy Gardner.

Where to from here?

Missing out on finals means the Panthers will likely see this season as a disappointment, considering they came into it as the reigning champions. Despite that, it was not a disastrous season by any stretch of the imagination. If they had won even one or two of those early season matches, things could have been very different. Going forward, the Panthers just need to find a way to cover the likes of Garth and Cripps while they are away on WBBL and WNCL duties.