Someone forgot to give the home side the script.
Despite regularly losing wickets, and not having any large scores, the Warriors batsmen managed to put together a compitetive total. Brian Allen, ex-skipper the second Niall McDonnell, young skipper Andy McBrine, ex-skipper the first Ifti Hussain and Andy Riddles all put in respectable contributions, and they all kept the tempo high enough. While Eddie Richardson impressed once more, bowling a tight spell of one for 29 from his ten over spell, no-one else kept the runs under four per over. Barry McCarthy, though, was penetrative, claiming two top-order wickets. The Warriors, though, would be very pleased with their total of 230 for eight.
The Lightning, though, wouldn't have expected it to be a challenging total; indeed, they went with an extremely quirky batting order to try to chase it down. The Warriors bowling, though, was everything that the Lightning bowling wasn't: it was tight, tidy and threatening. Stuart Thompson and Ifti Hussain promptly dislodged both openers, and brought Andrew Poynter and John Anderson to the crease. Neither of them could get the Warriors attack through the field, and eked along at under three-an-over. As a result, when the Lightning skipper, Kevin O'Brien, came to the crease, he had to keep the tempo above seven. He tried, and raced to 39 before he was pinned by Riddles. After that, the end was nigh. Craig Young helped his province to a clinical victory, and anyone watching would have thought that they, not Leinster, had been challenging for the title.
This was the moment when Leinster lost the Interprovincial Cup.
North West Warriors - 230/8 Niall McDonnell - 41 (59) Ifti Hussain - 38* (47) Barry McCarthy - 2/44 (10) John Anderson - 2/8 (2) | Leinster Lightning - 158 ao Kevin O'Brien - 39 (32) John Anderson - 26 (70) Andrew Riddles - 4/31 (10) Craig Young - 2/32 (6) |
Northern Knights Leinster Lightning North West Warriors | Won/NR/Lost 2 / 1 / 1 2 / 0 / 2 1 / 1 / 2 | Points 10 9 6 |