It was a make or break weekend in the Premier League for defending champions Instonians and after literally throwing away the chance of victory against Waringstown on Saturday they made up for it on Sunday by beating Muckamore less than 16 hours later.

It meant they finished the weekend just four points off the co-leaders although Lisburn, who they play on Saturday week, and Muckamore both have played a game less. Even with nine matches to play Instonians knew they couldn’t afford to lose three of their first five if they had realistic claims of keeping the league trophy at Shaw’s Bridge.

But, for now, they are still very much in contention and to get within 20 runs of Waringstown’s 288 – with 10 balls unused – showed their champions’ credentials and fighting spirit. Nine dropped catches, of various degrees of difficulty, is of course unacceptable for any leading side and it was to their credit that next day in the 20-over rearrangement at Moylena every catch was held, two each by Ben Rose and George Craigan and an excellent diving effort by Jack Dickson to end the Muckamore innings.

On Saturday, James McCollum was the main beneficiary of Instonians’ fielding, to make 118, his fourth century for the club. He was finally out in the 47^th over, actually caught at mid-on by Matthew Humphreys, one of five held on the day, including a reflex one-handed return catch by Andrew White to dismiss Waringstown skipper Greg Thompson.

It all added up to a tough day for the bowlers, with Humphreys and White the most economical, conceding 51 runs in their 10 overs, although White did pick up three wickets.

Their weakness is undoubtedly their pace bowling resources with Shane Dadswell and Cade Carmichael sharing the new ball – both went at a run a ball – and on a flat pitch they were rarely threatening.

Dadswell was the only pace bowler used on Sunday, although he did take two of the early wickets as Muckamore collapsed to 56 for eight and came back to end Neil Brand’s innings of 43, from 32 balls, to a catch at long-off by Ben Rose.

It was a feeble batting effort by Muckamore, however, needing their last two batters, captain Neil Gill and Luka Bates, to put on 32 for the last wicket – comfortably the highest stand of the innings - to give Instonians a three-figure target.

For three overs, even that looked too many for the champions as the wickets continued to fall, four of them for just nine runs with first ball dismissals for both openers, Sully Gould and Carmichael, and a second ball duck for White. But the rest of the innings belonged to Dadswell. Instonians still needed 99 runs and the South African professional scored all but 14 of them in an unbroken stand with Nikolai Smith, finishing 94 not out, having hit 10 sixes and six fours from just 44 balls.

Muckamore know they rely heavily on Brand’s runs – he scored 43 of the 72 runs added when he was at the wicket – but while Instonians do not depend on Dadswell for a big total – he was run out for five on Saturday – when he does get going he is in a class of his own. Certainly, the Muckamore bowlers had no answer to him as he found the boundary at will. At one stage he hit five sixes in the space of nine balls and finished the match with 6-4-4-6 from the first four balls of the 13^th over.

On Saturday, all but Gould and Dadswell, their two leading run-scorers this season, reached double figures with Neil Rock, who went on holiday on Sunday, giving Instonians his usual fast start. It should have been much more, however, and easily could have been much less as more than once he picked the wrong ball to try and crash it to the boundary. He finally picked one too many and skied a return catch to Steve Stolk after scoring 38 (six fours and a six) from 27 balls.

Fellow opener Carmichael was much more responsible and unluckily played on to Stolk but by then he had batted 29 overs and scored 57. Dickson has been given the responsibility of a top four slot and he is proving up to the task; he scored 39 off 68. That allows White and skipper Smith to come in at No 6 and 7, two batters who never gave their wickets away cheaply.

After that, Instonians still have Humphreys and Cian Robertson leaving any batting contribution from Craigan and Rose as bonus runs. With Robertson scoring 32 and Craigan 20, despite the catching – and Waringstown caught the bug as well, putting down six! – this was a game when the result was always in doubt until the last wicket fell. And you can never ask for more than that.