CADE CARMICHAEL’S century for the Northern Knights was in a losing cause as they twice threw away strong positions to lose to defending champions Leinster Lightning by four wickets at Oak Hill.

The Instonians batsman has thrived on his promotion up the order, and once again was in the runs to give himself a real chance of being named in the Ireland senior squad for the first time when it is unveiled this morning.

Carmichael welcomed back Ireland white-ball captain Paul Stirling to the Knights line-up, but he went for 17 – the first of three wickets for left-arm paceman Jai Moondra. Neil Rock joined Carmichael with the pair taking the NCU to 145 for 3 just before the midway point.

However, despite Carmichael hitting 14 fours and a maximum in a top-score of 107, the wheels came off as they lost seven wickets for 59 runs to be 204 all out with ten overs unused.

It looked as if it wouldn’t matter as Tom Mayes - another player in with a real chance of senior international inclusion -blew away the Dubliners top-order, reducing them along with Matthew Foster to 12 for 4, including last week’s centurions, Irish internationals Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker for single figure scores.

Enter stage left George Dockrell who has been the stand-out player in the competition for the last decade, and once again the Phoenix all-rounder proved himself the man for a crisis.

The 32-year-old shared stands of 82 for the sixth wicket with Gavin Hoey (40) and an unbroken 76 for the seventh with Barry McCarthy (34no) to guide Leinster home. Dockrell fittingly finished the game with a six to take him to his century, also hitting 14 boundaries in a fine exhibition of stroke play.

Another centurion to end up on the losing side was the North West Warriors opener Andrew Balbirnie. The Ireland Test captain top-scored with 101 as his side recovered from a sluggish start – his opening stand of 79 with Sam Topping (30) ate up more than half the overs – to post a competitive 245 for six.

That was mostly due to a late surge from Cameron Melly (31no) and Jared Wilson (28no) was shared a rapid unbroken seventh wicket stand of 58 from just 20 balls.

Munster captain Gareth Delany (70) shared a match defining fifth wicket partnership of 89 with former Ireland Under-19 captain Philippe Le Roux, whose unbeaten 74 steered Munster home with three wickets and two overs to spare.