Dean is a former Sydney Thunder and ACT Comets player who just two seasons ago won the DB Robin Medal as the best and fairest for Canberra's first-grade competition.

The questions grew louder after Dean hammered 85* from 58 balls against Eastlake on Saturday.

"Everyone is getting a little confused around Canberra," Dean said.

"Everyone's like 'Why are you playing second grade? You shouldn't be playing second grade, that's stupid.'"

Dean's response was simple.

"I'm playing left-handed."

Two-and-a-half years ago Dean realised how hard it is to start from scratch having coached kids new to cricket, so he began experimenting with his own game behind the scenes.

Then an injury in a Thunder academy match left Dean in need of surgery that with a young family he couldn't afford, meaning he had a decision to make.

"It was either give up cricket or try something different," Dean said.

"I could still hold my own in the Comets as a bat, but in saying that from where I'm at I love the all-round part of cricket.

"Cricket is fun to me because you get to bowl, you get to bat, you get to field – I've never been just a one-dimensional player."

Always trying to find a way to entertain and change the game, Dean is now playing left-handed until he cracks first grade "as a leftie".

Dean's experiment is a goal-setting marathon, the final box to tick being the ability to switch hands whenever he wants.

The plan was originally to play first grade left-handed by the end of the season, but a stellar half-century and a wicket from his first left-arm orthodox delivery has fast-tracked Dean's top-grade ambitions to Christmas.

"I would have been happy with a [score of] 20 out of this weekend," Dean said.

"I think some people don't quite understand it yet... because of the level I was playing at before.

"I think some people think I'm doing it to take the piss but I'm definitely not. This is a serious thing to see if we can influence the game in a way at all."

Weston Creek Molonglo's unbeaten first-grade side ended Queanbeyan's tournament with a nine-wicket win led by Jono Dean (58*) and Sydney Thunder rookie Joe Slater (3-21).

Tuggeranong joined Creek as Pool B's semi-finalists after accounting for Eastlake in a relatively comfortable six-wicket win.

North Canberra-Gungahlin young gun Ben Taylor (40*) continued his stellar form with the bat in steering his side to a semi-final berth in a nine-wicket win over ANU alongside opener Brock Winkler (52*).

Blake Macdonald's 88* from just 47 deliveries catapulted Wests-UC to a clean sweep of their pool matches, sneaking home in the final over for a five-wicket win over Ginninderra.

Meanwhile, the ACT Aces bowed out in the opening round of the Regional Bash in a nine-wicket loss to the South Coast Crew after being skittled for 93 in Nowra.

REGIONAL TWENTY20 CUP

Semi-Finals: Sunday – Weston Creek Molonglo v North Canberra-Gungahlin, Wests-UC v Tuggeranong. All games at 11am.