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A magnificent record-breaking partnership between Bathurst’s Jono Dean and his batting partner Michael Spaseski has delivered the ACT Comets a stunning outright victory.
In all sorts of trouble at 4-73 chasing 348 to win on the final day of their Futures League game against Victoria at Junction Oval, Dean and Spaseski put on 278 for the fifth wicket to guide the Comets over the line.
Dean ended on 121 from just 138 deliveries, while Spaseski finished unbeaten on 145 from 225 balls as the Comets raced to 4-351 in 76.2 overs on Thursday.
It was the highest fifth-wicket partnership in Comets’ history, the second-highest overall for the ACT and the highest by an ACT team in the CA Cup/Futures League.
That latter record used to belong to test batsman Michael Bevan and Greg Irvine with a total of 255.
“We were in a bit of strife when I went out to the wicket ... and we just said we’ve got to keep batting and take it if it comes,” Dean said on the Cricket ACT Facebook page.
“We just kept ticking boxes along the way and we eventually got ourselves to the end of the day, which was where we wanted to be, and in a position to win the game.”
Dean said patience was the key for himself and Spaseski in their record chase.
“We didn’t really try to overdo it, we just kept things simple. We got a few in the middle and we got the result,” he said.
“Four days is a really long time, so you’ve just got to battle through those four days and do the little things right.
“We weren’t really thinking about the win until day four when we had a total we needed to chase. We didn’t get off to a great start, which wasn’t ideal, but the end result speaks for itself.”
Spaseski made the most of his recall to the Comets’ side after he was squeezed out of the team to accommodate Brad Haddin in the opening round.
“Coming back into the Comets there was a little bit of pressure to perform, so I’m pretty happy with the result,” Spaseski said.
“We were always setting little goals, 20-, 30-run goals.
“Once we got over the 300-run mark we knew it was getting pretty close.”
Victoria set the game up on Thursday with their second attacking declaration of the match, ending their innings on 8-288 and an overall lead of 347.
The Comets made a terrible start to the run chase, but Spaseski and Dean were able to steady the ship and reached the target with 15 overs left in the match.
“It was a pretty good wicket and a very quick outfield,” Spaseski said.
“Jono and myself played pretty well and once you get in, you have to convert.”
There’s still plenty of cricket on the cards for Dean before he begins his Big Bash League campaign with the Adelaide Strikers.
Last night saw the Bathurst batsman play the Canberra T20 final for Queanbeyan, before backing up for today’s opening two-day Canberra Grade Fixture and ends the weekend tomorrow with the semi-finals of the city’s 50-over competition.
“I’ll be heading down to Adelaide soon on December the 11th. I’m really looking forward to getting down there and getting stuck in for the strikers. Hopefully it will be a big BBL for us this year,” Dean said.
“We just missed out last year so hopefully we can put some wins on the board early so we can make some moves towards the back end of the competition.”