It was the last in the match and Wellington needed a paltry seven runs to win with seven wickets in hand and two set batsmen at the crease.
Heart pounding, he thundered in, hoping for the best. The 19-year-old has been down on confidence recently but came through in spectacular fashion for his side to help clinch a dramatic one-run win that has lifted Otago into top spot on the HRV Cup competition table with one round-robin match remaining.
''It was just like any other, really. That is how you have to think about it,'' Duffy said.
''I was just thinking about hitting the hole and finding a way to get a dot. You can't think too much about it in that sort of situation.''
He really did not have anything to lose, in some respects. He hit the hole with his first two deliveries but Grant Elliott (70) and then James Franklin (68 not out) managed to squeeze out a single. The pair had batted superbly, adding 137 for the fourth wicket.
Their 100-run partnership came off just 50 balls. While they had some help from awful bowling, they also played some terrific cricket shots to get their side into a position to win the game.
Elliott drove Duffy's third delivery down the ground and scampered back for a second. Wellington needed three from three. The game had slipped away.
The recriminations had begun - how on earth had Otago posted 204 only to lose?Earlier, Hamish Rutherford and Neil Broom got the Volts off to a cracking start, adding 107 for the first wicket. Rutherford whacked 79 from 44 and Broom, who was slower to get going, got through to 47 off 40 before he was bowled.
Ryan ten Doeschate enhanced his reputation as one of the best finishers in the game with some incredible hitting at the death. Otago swatted 59 runs from the final three overs with ten Doeschate taking 24 from the last over alone. He was undefeated on 45 from just 18 deliveries. Michael Bracewell chipped in with an undefeated 22 from nine deliveries.
Dane Hutchinson was powerless to prevent his bowling disappearing over the boundary rope. His four overs cost a record 69 runs - the most expensive in the history of New Zealand domestic twenty20.
But back to Duffy and that last over. If ever Otago needed a slice of luck, it was now.
Elliott chased a wide delivery and nicked it through to the keeper, Derek de Boorder. Had the batsman left it, the umpire would have had no choice but to call it a wide.
''He was always walking across so it was always the plan to go wide,'' Duffy said.
''It is lucky he got bat on it. It was a pretty key wicket.''
Had Elliott missed, Duffy would have had to bowl it again and Wellington would have needed two from three. Instead, a new, and probably nervous, batsman came to the crease in the form of overseas professional Graham Napier.
Duffy bravely chose that moment, the penultimate ball, to deliver a slower ball, which hit the hole. Boy, that took guts. It worked. Napier was taken by surprise and could not connect. Three needed. One delivery. It really does not get any better than that.
The tall right-hander turned at the top of his mark and loped in, as he does. He hit the perfect line and length. The ball pitched right at the batsman's feet and the pair ran a leg bye.
Otago had bowled terribly but finished well, as Neil Wagner also bowled a very good second-to-last over.
''It was looking pretty dicey for most of their innings but we came back,'' Duffy said.
''The good thing was we got 200 on the board and even if they went well, they still had to get 10 an over, and that is pretty tough if you bowl well.
''We did lose it a little bit in the middle. Some of the plans might not have been right. I went for 30 off my first three and that is not good enough.''
In the other HRV Cup match played yesterday, the Northern Knights reached 180 for seven as former Black Cap Scott Styris helped himself to 48 off only 18 balls to carry ND to a 29-run win over the Auckland Aces at Eden Park's outer oval.
Points: Otago 24 (9 games), Wellington 20 (9), ND 20 (8), Auckland 16 (8), Canterbury 16 (8), CD 4 (8).
