Sheridan and Stanton named in Lightning T20 squad

The Leinster Lightning completes a busy week against the Northern Knights on Friday evening in Merrion Cricket Club with the two teams meeting for the third time in six days.

On Sunday John Anderson’s men were in a commanding position in the Hanley Energy Inter-Provincial 50-over fixture at Belmont, Ed Joyce providing a masterclass in batting. His 17th List-A century set up the game nicely for the holders. Jack Tector had the best seat in the house and the YMCA captain made 52 in a 131-run opening partnership. Rain however had the last say and the two teams shared the spoils.

Then Monday it was over to Stormont for our first ever First-Class match and after securing a first innings lead the game petered out into a draw as the Knights batted out the day and quashed any thoughts of setting up a target to chase. The holders took 10 points and the Knights settled for 9.

Half centuries for Jack Tector, Andrew Balbirnie and Eddie Richardson ensured the Lightning ended day two in a commanding position. Richardson with 4 first innings wickets, capped of a solid all-round performance. Gareth Delany impressed with his control and three first innings wickets on a seamer friendly pitch gave the champions a real boost. Peter Chase led the young Lightning attack with real maturity and ended with five wickets in the match. Andrew Balbirnie also show-cased his all-round abilities and took three second innings wickets to keep the pressure on the hosts. The Knights captain, James Shannon batted beautifully and steered his team to safety with an unbeaten 140.

For Friday’s Hanley Energy T-20 fixture there are two changes from our first T-20 game against the Warriors. Tom Stanton comes in replacing George Dockrell who is still busy with exams and Andrew Sheridan from North County is also included in the 12-man squad.

The squad for the IP20 over match is as follows: