RIGHT to the end, class rose to the top as Leinster Lightning completed a clean sweep of victories in the Newstalk inter-provincial Cup.
John Mooney, who leaves on Tuesday with the Ireland squad for their pre-World Cup acclimatisation tour to Australia and New Zealand, received the trophy from Cricket Ireland president Joe Doherty but not before he had played a key innings as they completed a two wickets victory over the Northern Knights at Rathmines yesterday.
Mooney hit 60 of the Lightning's winning total of 194 and Ireland's most capped player, Knights captain Andrew White, top scored with 44 but his solitary wicket wasn't enough to give the NCU side a consolation victory.
Neil Gill and Stephen Bunting, who shared the two new balls, bowled splendidly and indeed the latter's first eight overs cost just 19 runs, and he also bowled during the match-winning fourth wicket stand of 118 between Mooney and John Anderson.
Anderson was the unlucky batsman left out of the Ireland squad but he showed the strength in depth which National Coach Phil Simmons has, with a fluent 80 from 88 balls with 10 fours and a six.
The shots of the day came from Mooney, however, two superb reverse sweeps for six off Lee Nelson. The Waringstown captain, however, was the unlucky bowler when Chris Dougherty missed a stumping off Mooney when the Lightning skipper was on 44 and who knows what difference that would have made to the final result.
Adam Dennison continues to impress on the representative stage, offering more encouragement for the future, but despite Mooney's effortless innings, there was always a feeling that this was an end-of-season game.
Kevin O'Brien, the Ireland vice-captain, lasted only to the first drinks break and sat out the rest of the match after his busy summer, while Mooney had no intention of bowling.
Andrew Balbirnie, the other Ireland squad member involved, may have been out in the first over — Gill's first victim — but he was named player of the series for his two match-winning innings earlier in the competition.