Lightning's Lively Late Burst Leaves Leinster Coach Johnston Happy

Leinster Lightning Coach Trent Johnston is happy at the end of day two following a late burst with both bat and ball which left his team in a good position.

Barry Chambers: Trent, Leinster sill in control after the second day, another pretty good day for you?

Trent Johnston (Coach, Leinster Lightning): Yeah a good day, very good. You know to have them two down, minus a hundred and twenty or whatever it is, is good, exactly what we had sort of thought about at the start of the day. But I suppose I have to give credit to the North West bowlers, they did very well, especially the first session. Certainly derailed our plans, that we short of had in place for the day. But it was credit to them, and they bowled very well on a wicket that's probably, you know will probably go around corners for the next week, let alone the next day. So it was a good day, but the North West certainly stuck it to us.

Barry Chambers: I suppose you were expecting a fightback after the first day, they would have been pretty disappointed with the way they played?

Trent Johnston: We always expect a fightback from them, they're pretty tough cricketers, you know, they have pride in who they play for and what they stand for, and that sort of thing. And we always knew that we certainly weren't going to come in here and think that we were going to walk out with a victory. We knew at stages through this game that we're going to be in a battle, especially that first session. We probably stood on top there for the first part of that first session and the last half an hour they came back. Peter Connell bowled very well with the second new ball and got a well deserved four for, and we just know that we've just got to do pretty much the same tomorrow to clinch the victory.

Barry Chambers: Yeah what about Max Sorensen there at the end, a pretty fiery spell from him?

Trent Johnston: It's good, I suppose, a little bit of water on the wicket there sort of juiced it up a bit, and we said to Max, you know, you've obviously got Peter out there getting four for, in front of Simmo (Phil Simmons) here, he wants to prove a point that he's still number one in that sort of category, the fast bowling category for us. So I'm very pleased for him, he bowled well in the first innings, but didn't get the rewards. But you know hopefully he can get the rewards tomorrow, and get the game over and done with pretty quickly.

Barry Chambers:And you had a few good partnerships in your innings, Andrew Poynter batted very well and John Anderson?

Trent Johsnton:  Yeah very good, you know, Ando is pretty solid, he's the sort of guy out there that leaves very well. On that sort of wicket you need to do that, know where your off stump is, and I think that's something that we did well collectively as a team, all the way down the batting order. Poynts (Andrew Poynter) came in and played aggressive cricket from ball one, and sort of got the scoreboard ticking over, which was excellent, and when you've got Albert van der Merwe batting eleven, I think they put on close to seventy for the last wicket, so that certainly gave us the impetus going in at the close of innings, and to get two before stumps was very good.

Barry Chambers:  It's not going to be easy to get those wickets tomorrow, I'm sure the new ball is going to be crucial, that first hour in the morning?

Trent Johnston:  Yeah absolutely, it's a new ball wicket, so the reason that we thought we'd have half an hour at them tonight, even though we were bowled out, is to try and get, basically effectively two new ball cracks at them. So hopefully we can do that and get a couple of early wickets tomorrow morning, and have them on the back foot before the first drinks break.