Instead the Volts came unstuck chasing Canterbury's demanding total of 177 for six in a twenty/20 pre-season match in Rangiora yesterday.
The visiting side fell six runs short but coach Vaughn Johnson was pleased with his team's effort during the past four days.
Otago took the honours in the two-day warm-up match earlier in the week and got up to beat Canterbury in a thrilling one-dayer.
The team has taken plenty of confidence from those performances and feels well-placed for the opening game in the Plunket Shield in just eight days.
"I felt Canterbury probably got 20 to 30 too many," Johnson said.
"It was a good chase in the end but we missed by six runs.
"There were a couple of costly overs with the ball but generally it was pretty good. We tried a few things with our bowling attack and we learned quite a lot from the day.
"It has been a very valuable week."
Neil Wagner and Derek de Boorder top-scored for Otago with 37 runs apiece and Aaron Redmond (22) and Neil Broom (31) also made valuable contributions.
Otago just needed one of those batsman to go on and it would have likely notched a third consecutive win.
"When you're chasing 177 it really needs for someone to get an 80 and we had two or three guys ready to do that but they missed out."
Johnson was not particularly pleased with Otago's efforts with the ball during the first power play and towards the death, although the last two overs were "reasonable".
Nick Beard has picked up a shoulder injury and it is unclear whether he will be available for the season's opener. Injuries meant Ian Butler and Blair Soper remained behind in Dunedin.
"We just have to sort out these little niggles to Butler, Soper and now Beard. If we can get those sorted out, and have a full contingent to pick from for the first game, then I'm happy with were we are."
