Some much needed form in more ways than one lifted Pakenham to a commanding position against Officer on day one of round six in the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association (CCCA) Premier Division.
The Lions won the toss and elected to bat on their home pitch.
Starting poorly with the bat has been an issue that has plagued Pakenham this season, but newly-promoted opener Zach Flaxman and Jackson Luka took to the crease excellently.
The pair formed a 50-run partnership before things started to come undone as the duo had a miscue and Luka (17) was subsequently run out, followed by Flaxman (39) being caught and bowled by Ash Smith shortly after.
Jason Williams (3) didn’t hang around long and Imesh Jayasekara (10) and Marcus Martini (0) didn’t provide much damage either, suddenly stranding the hosts at 5/89.
But it was the old guard that got the innings back on track.
Skipper Jack Anning and longtime star Dom Paynter showed their class for a 159-run stand that saw Paynter reach a marvellous knock of 136 not out and Anning also raise the bat for 53.
The two fought hard and worked tirelessly at the crease, seeing Pakenham through the tea break, with Anning especially patient, to rebuild the score.
Paynter brought up the triple figures with a wonderful hit past the man at midwicket, with Anning celebrating with fist pumps while the pair ran three.
Anning then notched 50 with two magnificent cuts onto the off side.
The captain was finally dismissed when he edged off Cooper Pursell to bring the score to 6/248.
The last few Lions bats managed to hold up an end while Paynter finished the day unbeaten, adding a further 61 runs to settle at 8/309 at stumps.
Paynter faced 186 balls on his way to the knock of 136, smashing 12 fours and one major in the performance.
“It’s unreal,” Anning said of Paynter’s innings.
“Dom’s a close friend of mine, we’ve played a lot of cricket together and spent a lot of time together outside of cricket.
“We haven’t spent a lot of time in the middle together so to bat with him and watch him do his thing, I was locked in when I got out there.
“He’s unreal to bat with and unreal to watch because he finds the perfect balance of knocking the good balls on the head and making sure they don’t get him out but any opportunity to score, he does.
“Between the wickets he’s incredibly quick, balls that are probably ones become twos pretty quickly.”
The shared partnership between Anning and Paynter was so crucial for a plethora of reasons, including Anning finding much needed form while also helping the team out of a hole.
“It was good fun,” Anning said of batting with his great mate.
“It was a real treat for the both of us; we’ve played nearly 20 years together so to have that sort of moment was highly enjoyable and it was incredibly important as well because we were in a lot of trouble.”
In the past two rounds, Anning has opted to move himself down the order after struggling in his role as opener.
He was very open and honest about his position on his form, conceding it was time for some change to build back confidence.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” he reflected in his choice to drop to the middle.
“Not having Chris Smith this year, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself.
“I’d put a lot of pressure on myself as a senior leader and as captain, to take responsibility.
“I hadn’t done that, I’d failed four or five times at the top of the order.
“The conversation I had with assistant coach Zach Chaplin was that I would hold someone else accountable if they weren’t performing their role, so I’ve got to hold myself accountable as well.
“It was either you go down the order and find some runs or you go back to the seconds.”
The coaching panel was extremely supportive of Anning, who is a smart cricketer and an experienced mind in a young team.
A decision was made – Anning would drop down the order as his leadership and senior mentoring was invaluable to the young side.
“A couple of mentors of mine over the years rang me on Friday and said ‘remember when you spent seven or eight years of cricket batting in the middle order, that’s where you forged your career’,” Anning said.
“They reminded me I can do it.
“That was nice to hear and it got some confidence back in my game.
“It was a grind, Dommy was really good, telling me not to throw it away.
“The longer you stick it out the easier it gets.
“I’ll give them credit, they (Officer) fought really hard.
“Cooper Pursell bowled really well all day, he kept charging in, he was really clever with his changes of pace and rolling his fingers across the ball.
“I thought he set some really good fields as well, they remained attacking throughout.
“We probably only broke them in the last 15 overs of the innings.
“It came back to the responsibility of Dom and myself as senior players.”
And his side lifted with him.
Pakenham is still remaining dialled in despite a 1-4 start, with the group’s chemistry being the key to a potential season turnaround.
“We’re just staying really united as a group, it’s really easy at 1-4 to go into self-preservation mode,” Anning noted.
“It’s easy to fracture a little bit but the boys have been awesome so I think the confidence of knowing we’ve got runs on the board day one, it was a team effort, everyone chipped in along the way helps, we need to do that on Saturday.
“It needs to be all 11 of us, it can’t just be on the four or five bowlers.
“It’s not at the fault of our bowlers, but we just haven’t been able to take early wickets.
“I think having a score like that on the board probably allows us to be a bit more attacking with our fields.
“There’ll be a big responsibility on Tom Tyrell and Jack Scott with the new ball.
“Officer is a dangerous side, we’ve seen them put some scores on this year; I don’t think the fact that they haven’t won a game is reflective of how competitive they’ve been.
“We know we’ve got to take early wickets otherwise they can do a very similar thing to us as what we did to them.
“One thing as leaders we’ve been trying to emphasise to a young group is the way to play two day cricket.”
Pursell finished with three wickets for the Bullants, while Agamjot Dhindsa also bagged three.
Officer will take to the crease on day two with a target of 310.
