When Dean arrived at the crease, Creek were under pressure at 4-53 in pursuit of 238 for victory against Ginninderra in their semi-final.

But Dean curbed his naturally aggressive game and took a more patient approach as he joined his skipper John Rogers on a rescue mission.

The pair put on a 155-run stand, Dean going on to hit an unbeaten 124 to see his side home by four wickets on Saturday afternoon. 

The win came with more than a day’s play in hand, Dean’s 14^th century moving him to equal third on the all-time Cricket ACT list in first grade.

“It was great to first of all get a win, but obviously personally, it was great just to get some runs,” Dean said.

“I think it was a quite restrained innings, it was not really my natural game, but I was trying to be patient and ride the different waves of pressure.

“It was really hard the first session out there, they bowled really well and the ball was swinging.

“But once the spinners came on, we decided it was time to push the button and hit out and there was no going back after that.”

When play got underway on Friday at Stirling Oval, Ginninderra were in trouble after winning the toss and electing to bat. They were 7-94 before an unbeaten 97 from Sam Gaskin helped them to 237.

Creek had plenty of time to chase that total, but made a nervous start before Dean and Rogers switched momentum in their favour.

“We went fairly well early on Friday, but they fought back as the wicket flattened out. They put on 237 which is more than we thought they’d get at that point, but less than what we thought a par score would be,” Dean said.

“We were 4-50 which was not ideal, yeah we were under a bit of pressure.”

Dean’s unbeaten 124 came off 154 deliveries and after a slow start, he cracked 13 boundaries and four sixes to help Creek to victory in the 87^th over.

It was his third century of the season, adding to a 136 against ANU and 151 against Queanbeyan.

The effort also moved Dean to within 30 runs of the 10,000 mark for his first grade cricket career.