The Lightning batted first, and their top three of van der Merwe, Collins and Cusack were all quickly back in the pavilion thanks to strikes from Eaglestone, Waller and Allen Coulter. When Andrew Poynter also left before reaching 20, the Knights bowlers must have been quite pleased with their work, but the depth of the Leinster batting is formidable. Irish long form regular John Anderson booked in for the long haul, grinding out 86 patient runs while the Leinster skipper O'Brien made an explosive half-century from number six. When he fell, MCC Young Cricketer Stuart Poynter brazenly set about outdoing him and succeeded by clouting a 55-ball 54 that included ten fours.
For most teams, number eight would mark the start of the tail, but for Leinster it just means that there are some more batsmen. John Mooney played nicely for his 36 while McAllister (scorer of pretty regular centuries for his club) failed at the other end. Even ten and eleven (Richardson and Sorensen) are both good all-rounders, as they proved by putting on 60 in seven overs to snatch all momentum in the game. It was brutal hitting, and undid all the good work of the Knights bowlers, in particular Phil Eaglestone.
The Leinster Lightning batsmen made a big score in quick time.
With James Shannon unavailable to open because of an injury, Terrett was promoted to do so as the Knights followed on, but he could not repeat his earlier application and fell for only two as Richardson got the early breakthrough once again. Lee Nelson also departed cheaply, but the imminent collapse was abated by skipper Andrew White and Greg Thompson, who made respectable contributions from numbers four and five, but whose 20s and 30s were not enough to keep their side in the game. Nikolai Smith then departed before Dougherty was finally dismissed by Eddie Richardson, for 69 this time out, having seen fifteen wickets fall from the other end. From then on, the only question was whether it would be the Lightning or the rain that would end the game first, but early on the third day the home side walked out victorious.
The Lightning bowlers dominated, only being tamed by the impressive Chris Dougherty.
Leinster Lightning - 364 ao John Anderson - 86 (156) Stuart Poynter - 54 (55) Phil Eaglestone - 4/88 (20) Greg Thompson - 2/33 (8.4) | Northern Knights - 123 ao Chris Dougherty - 60* (127) John Terrett - 26 (46) John Mooney - 3/18 (9) Eddie Richardson - 3/26 (8) and 226 ao Chris Dougherty - 69 (165) Zach Rushe - 37 (62) Pat Collins - 2/10 (6) John Mooney - 2/34 (14) |
Leinster North North West | Played 2 2 2 | Won/Drawn/Lost 1 / 1 / 0 1 / 0 / 1 0 / 1 / 1 | Bonus Points 15 8 8 | Total Points 34 24 11 |