Peter Connell grabbed the headlines on the second day of the inter-provincial at College Park as the North West Warriors' only current international finally came to party.

When he took the second new ball, 15 minutes after lunch, he had figures of 13-2-38-0. Seven overs later he had four wickets for 45 and it should have been five for 45 but Ireland team-mate Max Sorensen was dropped first ball. That wasn't, in itself, a crucial miss, as the Leinster No 10 scored only seven but North West frustrations had only just begun.

When Sorensen was dismissed, Albert van der Merwe joined Andrew Poynter and they added 63 in 21 overs for the last wicket to stretch the Lightning's lead to 128. They then piled on the pressure in the nine overs remaining before the close as Sorensen struck twice to leave the Warriors needing another 106 just to avoid the innings defeat. And this team, remember, lost seven wickets for 89 in their first innings.

Connell made his Ireland comeback in two ODIs last August, after two years in the wilderness, but with National coach Phil Simmons and selector Brian McNeice watching yesterday, his spell of four for five in 33 balls could have forced his way into the next Ireland A selection for their three-day game against Kent 2nd XI at the end of the month.

When Connell is fired up there is no better sight and at one stage he was removing his sweater at mid-wicket even before the last ball of the previous over had been fielded. His first wicket, ending John Anderson's 158-ball marathon, was a slower ball driven to cover, next ball he had young Tryone Kane caught behind and he followed that up without any outside help to dismiss Fintan McAllister and Eddie Richardson.

The Strabane's bowler's luck ran out with McBrine's miss in the gully, albeit a spectacular diving effort, and it was an incredible drop by Johnny Thompson, off Kamran Sajjid which gave Poynter the only life in the last wicket stand.

Wednesday's hero, Bill Coghlan, was out to his first ball of the day and when Warriors captain Ifti Hussain had Kevin O'Brien caught behind for just one, North West were enjoying their best spell of the game.  But they are going to need a brilliant final day if they are to avoid defeat.