Skipper Mooney Delighted With Leinster Lightning Character and Bowling Strength

Leinster Lightning Skipper, and new Balbriggan recruit, John Mooney was delighted with his sides fighting spirit.

Having set the Northern Knights a possibly below standard 144, the Lighting showed strength in depth to restrict the Knights to 139.

A good start in the competition for the Lightning, and Mooney was particularly pleased with the performance of Andrew Poynter held their innings together with 52 from 47 balls.

Barry Chambers: John a lot tighter than you would have wanted, but after the halfway stage you'll be glad of the win?

John Mooney: Yeah delighted with the win. I think we battled really hard there today. It did get a bit tighter there at the end. Gary Kidd batted very well, but you know we showed a lot of great character with the ball there.

Tyrone Kane, Edzer (Eddie Richardson), Kevvy (Kevin O'Brien), Maxi (Max Sorenson) was unlucky all day with the ball, and his figures won't reflect, I think he bowled better than that. But it was a good performance.

Barry Chambers: You certainly showed your depth, seven or eight bowlers there, and you rotated them wisely?

John Mooney: Yes, you know it was a spinners wicket. And today, it didn't happen for Yaq (Yaqoob Ali)i, John Anderson did his usual, come on and took a wicket. But the seamers stepped up, hit their lengths, you know we probably bowled a bit too full and got hit back down the ground by Jonsey (Nigel Jones) a bit more than what we would have liked.

Barry Chambers: And Andrew Poynter in the batting, held it all together there for the Lightning?

John Mooney: Well, it's simple - one of the top four has to go on and score runs. And Poyntsie did that brilliantly.

He's a senior player now in this team, and very unlucky not to go to the World Cup, and he's still showing that he's in great form from last year.