DUBLIN – Leinster Lightning skipper George Dockrell recorded his maiden century with two maximums off the final two deliveries, leading his team to victory against Northern Knights by 70 runs in the Inter-Provincial Cup at Pembroke Cricket Club on Tuesday. 

Beginning the 50th over of the Lightning’s innings at the non-strikers end at the score of 81*, Dockrell slammed 3 sixes off Ruhan Pretorius’ over – bringing up his first century off just 84 balls with his last 50 runs coming from just 21 deliveries.

Dockrell had hit an unbeaten 51 in the last Cup game against the North West Warriors on Saturday and carried on to his good form in this match, hitting 5 sixes and 8 fours. His unbeaten 98 was his previous best that came against the Knights in 2018.

Dockrell shared 5th wicket 104-run stand with Simi Singh (38), with the Lightning scoring 109 runs from the final 10 overs.

Those early stages featured significant contributions from Kevin O’Brien (37) and Jamie Grassi (34), but it wasn’t until Singh joined forces with Dockrell in the 33rd over that the momentum started to build. The Leinster side walked into the innings break in a comfortable position with 251-6.

Graeme McCarter, from the Knights impressed early with the figures of 2-27 from his 10 overs, whereas Mark Adair’s 2-57 was a decent first run out of the new season for CIYMS man.

The injury to James McCollum in the second over of the match meant an elevation for Ruhan Pretorius and open with Paul Stirling. However, both Pretorius (4) and Stirling (17) went back to the pavilion thanks to Peter Chase. The Malahide fast bowler finished with a brilliant figure of 3-37 and looked threatening throughout.

A rain delay after sometime forced the loss of eight overs and adjusted the target of 234 from 42.

Debutant Luke Georgeson was impressive with his 46, while Mark Adair scored 36, however in the end, the Knights just couldn’t manage to keep going thanks to good bowling pressure from the hosts, and were bowled out on the score of 163-9 with 23 balls left in their innings.

The two teams will encounter each other again at Comber on 16 May.

MATCH SUMMARY

Leinster Lightning v Northern Knights, Inter-Provincial Cup, Dublin, 4 May 2021

Lightning 251-6 (50 overs; G Dockrell 100*, S Singh 38;  G McCarter 2-27)

Knights 163-9 (38.1 overs; L Georgeson 46, M Adair 36*; P Chase 3-37)