JUST two hours play was possible after overnight rain delayed the start of the final day of the last inter-provincial Championship game of the season, between Leinster Lightning and Northern Knights, and the likely draw became a certainty.

Indeed, the only interest when play finally got under way at 2.40pm, was if Andrew Balbirnie could become the first of the seven batsmen to convert a half-century into a hundred but even Ireland’s most in-form batsman could not break the jinx, dismissed to his sixth ball of the day for 85.

Lightning skipper George Dockrell also had an outside chance of doing it, bringing up his 50 with, technically, 31 overs left in the day, but the Lightning skipper could add only five more runs and the record books were being pored over last night to find out if eight first innings 50s and no hundreds was anywhere near a first class record.

Lightning, who finished second in the final Championship table to champions North West Warriors - albeit a distant 15 points behind - had the satisfaction of passing Knights’s imposing first innings total of 440-9 with just six wickets down, although James Shannon brought himself on for the final two overs and ended Eddie Richardson’s bright and breezy 29, from 28 balls.

Shannon surprisingly bowled his seamers for the first 19 overs but, possibly under instruction, it ensured that Nathan Smith and Shane Getkate had plenty of overs under their belts ahead of the Ireland Wolves game next week, a four-day fixture against Gloucestershire II, starting on Tuesday.

Indeed no fewer than 10 of the players will unite for the game with Shannon, James McCollum and James Cameron-Dow the other Knights players in the squad.

Jack Tector, fresh from scoring 87 for Lightning on Wednesday, has been named as captain and is joined by fellow opener Stephen Doheny plus wicket-keeper Lorcan Tucker Gareth Delany and Tyrone Kane.

There probably remains room for only one of Smith and Kane in the same Ireland team and after cruelly missing out on Test selection because of injury, he needs overs under his belt after being outbowled this week by Kane, the player who replaced him against Pakistan.

The squad is completed by the only two North West Warriors' selected, Craig Young and Aaron Gillespie.

J Tector (capt), J Cameron-Dow, G Delany, S Doheny, S Getkate, A Gillespie, T Kane, J McCollum, J Shannon, N Smith, L Tucker, C Young.