Eddie Richardson and Albert van der Merwe shared six wickets at College Park to bowl Leinster Lightning to a 157-run victory over the Northern Knights and a 20-point lead at the top of the Newstalk FM InterPro Championship.

Lightning added 21 to their overnight score to set the Knights 334 to win – or more realistically to bat out 98 overs for a draw – but the Belfast-based side fell well short of both ambitions as they were dismissed for 176.

North County seamer Richardson had an excellent return of 3-24 from 12 overs.

Ireland international batsman James Shannon resisted doggedly for over two hours, making just 27 runs from 149 balls, before he edged van der Merwe to slip and the tall YMCA off spinner then bowled Mark Adair to complete figures of 3-35.

It was left to Andrew Poynter's occasional spin to wrap up the win 15 minutes before the start of the final hour.