EASTLAKE skipper Michael Spaseski smashed another blistering century on Saturday but it wasn’t enough to lift his team to a Cricket ACT first-grade comeback at Kingston Oval.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Spaseski’s spectacular season continued when he belted 100 from 107 balls in Eastlake’s second innings against Wests-UC.
It added to an impressive record, with Spaseski having scored a century for ACT Comets and a double ton for Eastlake to sit alongside other milestone scores of 99 and 59 this year.
But the 23-year-old’s efforts were in vain after defending two-day premiers Wests-UC cruised to a first-innings victory when they passed Eastlake’s poor target of 167.
Spaseski is still on the radar for the Twenty20 Big Bash and could come into consideration for a supplementary contract with one of the teams.
Comets teammates Ben Oakley and Jono Dean will play for the Adelaide Strikers, while Greg West and Blake Dean have supplementary contracts with the Sydney Thunder.
Last weekend, Spaseski had a brain snap and was cleaned up by Wests-UC opening bowler Dale Riley, scoring just two runs in the first innings.
‘‘It was good to get back in the runs, but we couldn’t get the points, which is what really matters,’’ Spaseski said.
‘‘Nothing has really come of the Big Bash, we’ll just wait and see. We batted well in the second innings, it’s just a shame we couldn’t do it in the first innings when it counted.’’
Among other matches, Gungahlin declared at a massive 481 and Weston Creek managed 248 in reply.
Stand-in captain Harry Medhurst anchored Weston Creek’s innings with 114.
Regular skipper Michael Delaney will see a surgeon this week to determine whether his season is over after some bone broke off his pelvis.
Delaney was kicking a football when he suffered a recurrence of an old injury.
Queanbeyan was also hit with injury and player absence in its loss to North Canberra-Gungahlin at Harrison.
The Bluebags were missing star Jono Dean and had three other players away on ACT under-19s duties.
It was made even harder when Josh Bennett was advised not to play after he suffered concussion last week.
Bennett was hit in the head in a warm-up soccer game and has battled headaches since, but scans have cleared him for a return in the coming weeks.
Queanbeyan captain Blake Dean scored 52, but the Bluebags were all out for 175 chasing North Canberra-Gungahlin’s 8-321.
North Canberra-Gungahlin captain Andrew Barnett hopes the result delivers a timely confidence boost for his side.
‘‘We didn’t know Bennett wasn’t batting until we got nine wickets and he didn’t come out because he was best off not batting. Beating a team like Queanbeyan is good for us and will give us a bit of confidence,’’ Barnett said.
In the last match of the round, ANU passed its first innings target of 77 in its clash with Tuggeranong.
