Greg Thompson is faced with a selection headache on Saturday – for the first time this season the Waringstown captain has a full squad to choose from.

A combination of Ireland call-ups, injuries and even holidays has forced the defending Premier League champions to field under-strength sides that has seen them exit the Irish Senior Cup and almost certainly the T20 Cup at the group stage.

But Thursday’s night’s victory at Shaw’s Bridge against previously unbeaten Instonians was huge and keeps them right on the tails of leaders Lisburn going into this weekend’s sixth round of games.

Daniel van der Merwe

The  game was the second and final attempt to complete the fixture after the original match was abandoned by rain with Instonians on 248 for three after 32 overs and on course for a massive total.

What a difference 12 days makes. This time, Tom Mayes, Graham Hume and James Cameron-Dow were all available and, in a 20-over game, the home side were shot out for just 81 in 13.2 overs.

“It was a big win,” admitted Thompson. "We didn’t want to fall two losses behind Lisburn and Instonians. It makes a big difference when you have two bowlers of international quality coming back into the line up and those playing around them makes the others play better.

“We were not in a strong positon in the previous game but both teams had to bat on it, it was a good pitch with small boundaries and with our batting line-up we feel we can chase most totals.

“We won the toss today and the bowlers did the job and we followed through with the bat (winning by eight wickets in the 13th over).”

With Adam Dennison and James McCollum missing, it was the Topping brothers who opened the batting and their stand of 59 ensured it would be a procession to a vital four points.

For Saturday’s game at home to Civil Service North both Dennison and McCollum, along with Ross Allen are available and with none of the Waringstown internationals in the T20 squad for next week’s games against West Indies, Thompson can finally have his first choice line-up.

He hasn’t looked ahead to the following weekend when they travel to Carrickfergus in the Challenge Cup – a repeat of the final two years ago – but it should be the same again and the captain is looking forward to going on a winning run in their two remaining competitions.

Waringstown didn’t actually complete victory on the field in their second round Challenge Cup game – winning by forfeit when Muckamore failed to produce a printed DLS sheet following a rain interruption in the second innings – but they were in a strong position having posted 323 for eight, the top order finally showing signs of hitting form after a slow start to the season when the middle order has been mainly responsible for the winnings totals.

"It was nice to continue the good habits from the Muckamore game and the cream always rises to the top. With good players at the top you know runs are inevitable and whenever they come good it makes the middle order’s job straightforward to up the tempo and we enjoy doing that,” added Thompson.

Instonians probably fancied themselves to maintain their superb T20 form this season – they have scoring runs for fun and quickly – but this was undoubtedly the strongest attack they have faced so far and, in truth, they failed to adjust.

Neil Rock, Cade Carmichael and Andrew White all fell to almost identical shots in Hume’s first two overs and Daniel van der Merwe chipped in with the wickets of captain Nikolai Smith (14 off 14) and Shane Dadswell (35 off 22), caught on the boundary going for their second and fourth sixes respectively.

Cian Robertson, who hit the only other six of the innings, was leg before to Thompson’s first ball and he then had Adam Ly caught at mid-off with the last ball of his only over to leave Instonians 79 for eight.

Cameron-Dow picked up two wickets in his three overs, at a cost of just seven runs and Mayes ensured he wasn’t left out of the final column either, taking his chance to come back and wrap up the innings

Sam Topping dominated the strike and scoring in the early part of the Waringstown innings, hitting 33 of the first 42 runs but he couldn’t complete his half-century, stumped off White for 41. With just three runs required for victory, Jack Snell was promoted to number four and duly won the match with a boundary.

Instonians will aim to bounce straight back on Saturday with victory at Muckamore but the Moylena side pulled off an impressive 16 runs victory over North Down in their rearranged game on Thursday and Civil Service North head to the Lawn also in winning form after a comfortable 70 runs victory against Templepatrick, thanks to 58 from in-form Marc Ellison and four wickets for Harry Dyer.