Ruthless Lightning Bowlers Strike Hard as Woeful Warriors Wilt at Malahide

Leinster Lightning Coach Trent Johnston was impressed with his sides comprehensive 149 run victory over the North West Warriors at Malahide. While praising the great start the Lightning got from Ben Ackland and John Anderson, it was the Leinster bowling attack which impressed, never letting the Warriors settle and dismissing them for 123.

Barry Chambers: Trent a pretty comprehensive victory. Strengthened by the absence of yourself (laughs) Trent Johnston?

Trent Johnston (Leinster Lightning Coach): No strengthened by John Mooney coming back in. I think that all jokes aside, we were pretty impressive today.

We had a great start, a great platform by Ben Ackland and John Anderson up front. We knew that it was probably going to be best to bat on in the first thirty overs. Traditionally wickets here will get a bit harder to score on at the back end of the innings, the ball will get a bit softer, and only using one ball would certainly help that.

But the boys still had to go out there and do that, and laid a great foundation. And then I thought both the Andrew's bowled very well in the middle, McBrine and Riddles, they sort of squeezed us there.

We missed out on a power play, we only got fourteen runs in five overs. So that was a bit of a disappointment, you know, even looking at the scoreboard with 270. So I think those guys bowled very well and squeezed us there in the middle.

And coming home there at the end, when you've got Kevin in the form he's in currently, you certainly can't give him an opportunity and drop him. And he made the North West pay there, and probably got us an extra thirty-forty runs and put them out of the game.

Barry Chambers: A bit about Ben Ackland and John Anderson, great partnership at the start. I thought it was maybe a brave decision playing Ben Ackland - he hasn't been setting the world on fire with Ireland A, and he hasn't featured for Lightning. But a super innings by him.

Trent Johsnton: Yeah, he's been doing well in Club Cricket, and his worth ethic is very good. He's always ringing up and looking for extra hits, which as a coach, I like that. He's been close to being playing in the previous two games, but he's just missed out. So we thought we'd give him an opportunity today. He sort of bowls `offies' as well, we though you know if something happens we may need him at the back end, in the second innings.

But he went out there and took his opportunity, that's what it's about and I spoke about that in the changing room, and he has given us a decision to make for the next game. I would have liked him to go on and get another forty or fifty runs not out. But he was disappointed in the shot he played, and there's probably a couple of others up top there, who got started that were disappointed in their shots, so probably next time, you know you say it was probably a ruthless victory, but you know we've got to be a little bit more ruthless.

Barry Chambers: You've got a great strength in depth, when you look at the players not even in the squad, I mean you have a lot of guys knocking on the door there?

Trent Johnston: Yeah there is, and that's pressure on the guys that are in the team to perform. And they know that, and they have done that in the three games, all be it probably, you know, for a few dropped catches in Trinity there in the three day game, we'd probably be three from three. But that's the way going forward. We were pretty impressive here today, and that's what I want us to do, to play good aggressive cricket, and so does the captain. So we did that, we came out and started with the new ball very well, and they just never recovered from that.

Barry Chambers: Was there a bit of revenge in the air there, mental disintegration, I mean you just didn't only beat them, you wanted to hammer them didn't you really?

Trent Johnston: Well we did yeah, because you know there was probably an unfair result there at Trinity, and we heaped it on ourselves, I suppose by effectively having to get them out three times. So you know that's through our own fault in dropping catches, and you can't do that at this level, and you know that cost us a lot of points in that tournament. So we wanted to atone for that.