Leinster Lightning took a stranglehold on their Newstalk Inter-provincial championship game yesterday after the Northern Knights lost eight wickets for 39 runs on another sun-drenched day at College Park.

The Knights collapsed to 100 for nine and although a last wicket stand of 44 between top scorer Shane Getkate and James Cameron-Dow avoided the embarrassment of being asked to follow-on, Lightning still had a first innings lead of 146 which they had increased to 312 by the close.

There was the outside possibility of a second Lightning declaration last night but runs are still hard to come by on the slow pitch and even slower outfield but with another glorious day forecast today, it was a case of "if we can't bowl out Knights in 104 overs, we don't deserve to win".

The ease with which Andrew Poynter and Simmi Singh batted through the final 22 overs last night – while adding 89 - will give Knights hope that if they are not too ambitious they can escape with a draw but so far the Lightning bowlers have proved a classy attack.

Ireland international Max Sorensen was on a hat-trick, after two balls of the afternoon session while cousins John Mooney and Eddie Richardson had figures of five for 45 in 18 overs. The one surprise is that a home spinner has yet to take a wicket but they will look forward to bowling on the third-day pitch.