Tons of runs in ACT cricket first grade round one

Eastlake secured a huge win against ANU when skipper Michael Spaseski smashed an outstanding 221 to chase down its 360 target with three wickets in hand.

In a dramatic and history-making first round of the Douglas Cup:

■ Spaseski's 221 gave him the sixth highest individual score in Cricket ACT's two-day competition's history;

■ His double century was the third score of 200 or more in the same round, joining Jono Dean (234 not out) and Owen Chivers (201) in the competition's top 12 scores;

■ Eastlake chased down ANU's score of 359 despite battling at 4-32 early on Saturday;

■ Sam Gaskin scored 127 for Ginninderra, but he was caught on the boundary with his team 17 runs short of victory;

■ Kev Jacobs piled on 118 in Weston Creek-Molonglo's score of 345 chasing Queanbeyan's huge total of 437, and;

■ Queanbeyan skipper Blake Dean combined with brother Jono to get the last Weston Creek-Molonglo wicket on the second last ball of the day to lift the Bluebags to an intense victory.

Spaseski's 221 followed his century for the ACT Comets against Tasmania in the Futures League match last week.

The 23-year-old combined with Adam Tett (74) for a 290-run partnership.

The duo combined when Eastlake was struggling at 4-32 and belted the ANU attack to steer their team to unlikely victory.

Batsmen dominated the opening round of the two-day season.

They scored 2263 runs across four games, which included the match between Wests-UC and Tuggeranong being abandoned on Saturday.

''Maybe the tables have turned for the batsmen,'' Spaseski said. ''It's weird to have so many runs scored so early in the season. Canberra's not usually a place where you get big scores often.

''Maybe in a season there's one double hundred. But for three to come in the same round, it's odd. I can't tell you why … maybe a few blokes are hitting them well and that sums it up.''

Making Eastlakes' monster 360-total even more impressive was the fact the same team was bowled out by Wests two weeks ago for less than 40 runs in a Twenty20 match.

Ginninderra was on track for another unlikely win when Gaskin took charge of his team's innings to chase down Norths' 280.

Former Norths star Gaskin was belting his ex-teammates, but he came unstuck with victory in sight.

Ginninderra was 8-145 when Gaskin turned up the heat to get his team within 16 runs with one wicket left.

Norths put eight players on the boundary and Gaskin was caught when trying to find a gap in a heartbreaking end to the game.

The drama continued at Stirling Oval. Jono Dean led Queanbeyan to a huge 437 last week and the Bluebags were expected to cruise to victory.

But Jacob's defiant century and some gritty defence got Weston Creek-Molonglo within 100.

With two balls left in the day and the game on the verge of a draw, Queanbeyan captain Blake Dean stepped up to get the last wicket and secure a win.

''It was going to be tight, there was only about 30 more seconds left in the day,'' Blake Dean said.

''We were worried, they were on top pretty much the whole day. They were never going to get the runs but they were on target to make it a draw and we did really well.''