There were nerves aplenty, but The Hills defeated Leinster by 50-runs in the crucial Premier League, Game of the Day at Milverton on Saturday.
Albert van der Merwe struck an impressive 57, while Max Sorensen took 5-26 off his eight overs but that barely scratches the surface of the drama that unfolded.
Van der Merwe (5x4,3x6) and Mark Donegan 37 (4x4,1x6) put on 89 for the second wicket and had The Hills 100/1 at the mid-innings drinks break.
Andrew Clough picked up their wickets in successive overs and though Max Sorensen (14) and Nic Pretorius (24) got starts, when Gareth Delany bowled the latter, the visitors had The Hills 157/5 with ten overs remaining.
The loss of the captain sparked a collapse for the home side as they lost 6 wickets for 7 runs in six overs. The final wicket symptomatic of this as Harry Archer was run out and Leinster had bowled The Hills out for 164 in 43.3 overs.
The collapse was unexpected but so too was the start to the Leinster innings. Max Sorensen opened like a train trapping O’Herlihy LBW 3rd ball before Gareth Delany was out to the last ball of the first over.
Delany was out caught behind by Donegan and to his credit the Leinster captain walked.
Backed up by Nazeer Shoukat taking a wicket in the second over, Sorensen had his third when Monil Patel gave Clinton the chance to take a good catch at mid-off and Leinster were 4/4.
Joe Carroll was the mainstay of the Leinster innings contributing a brilliant 59. He may have lost O’Dwyer in the 9th over as Leinster fell five down but Carroll was batting on a different wicket to his teammates.
Together with Saqib Bahudar who hit 35, the pair put on 81 for the 6th wicket and looked to be taking Leinster towards victory.
The vital breakthrough for The Hills came when Sorensen came back into the attack and completed his 5-fer, Bahudar holing out in the deep to Archer.
Joe Carroll stood firm however and his 4 through cover in the 35th brought up his 50 off 98 deliveries.
That was to be as good as it got for the visitors however as O’Sullivan was bowled next over and Andrew Clough was run out looking for a single in the 39th over.
In the end it was the wily veteran Shoukat who concluded proceedings taking two wickets in the 41st over.
Leinster had been bowled out for 114 themselves, and The Hills secured a vital 50-run win in the Cricket Leinster Premier League.