Otago's one-day campaign appeared to be grinding to an inevitable end after it was dismissed for a paltry 172 against Canterbury in a sudden-death play-off game at the University Oval yesterday.
But any obituary was premature, after Canterbury collapsed from 93 for one to be all out for 160.
Otago survived its brush with elimination and will instead travel north to play Auckland in the preliminary final on Wednesday. The winner is destined to meet Central Districts in the final on Sunday.
Otago coach Vaughn Johnson gave a disbelieving shake of the head before offering his assessment of the day's remarkable events.
"If you came to me and said, 'right you'll get 172 and they will be 90 odd for one' - you wouldn't take that would you?
"But it shows that our guys believe they can win from any situation. The passion and the pride they showed to win for their province was enormous today."
The pitch was the same wicket which was used for the one-day international between New Zealand and Zimbabwe on Friday and drew criticism from the players, particularly the batsmen, and all of it muttered through clenched jaws.
But it was the same for both sides and, if anything, Canterbury had the better of the batting conditions with heavy cloud cover helping the ball swing during Otago's innings.
As the cloud lifted in the afternoon the ball swung less but runs also got harder to score.
While Peter Fulton (53 from 104 balls) was at the wicket, Canterbury was in control of the game and inching closer to victory. But when he mistimed a pull shot off the bowling of Jimmy Neesham, suddenly Otago sensed half a chance.
Spinner Nick Beard bowled a tremendous spell and, while he did not have a huge amount of success in the wicket column with just the one scalp, he helped build pressure.
He also bowled in tandem with Neesham, who did have success.
Having removed the Canterbury captain, Neesham turned his attention to an inexperienced middle order, picking up the wickets of Henry Nicholls, Todd Astle and Matt Henry and brilliantly running out Logan van Beek.
He also unsettled Reece Young when he struck the former international on the wrist with an effort ball. Neil Wagner reaped the reward in the next over when he nicked out the wicketkeeper-batsman.
Former Otago captain Craig Cumming provided the coup de grace, trapping Ryan McCone lbw.
He was called on to bowl only because fast bowler James McMillan injured his shoulder in the game and will likely be sidelined for the next two weeks.
McCone stood his ground for a long time, clearly unhappy with umpire Gary Baxter's decision.
And with the benefit of replays, the ball certainly appeared to have pitched outside leg.
Earlier, Canterbury's tender bowling attack more than held its own against an Otago top order which has struggled to make much impact this season.
The visitors were missing three front-line bowlers, with seamer Andrew Ellis and handy spinner Rob Nicol on national duty and overseas player Mitchell Claydon unavailable.
Fulton had to find 30 overs from debutants Tim Johnston and Edwards Nuttall and relative newcomer van Beek.
But despite some positive batting from the home side in the very early exchanges, the rookies were not about to be upstagedNuttall (18) announced his presence with a fine diving catch at third man. He charged forward about 20m and scooped up the ball, much to Hamish Rutherford's horror.
It must have done wonders for the left-armer's confidence because he returned to the bowling crease with renewed vigour.
But, perhaps more importantly, he started swinging the ball.
He had a confident shout for lbw against Neil Broom turned down but got his reward later that over. This time Broom got a good stride in down the pitch and appeared to have got outside the line.
Nuttall must have thought the game was easy when Michael Bracewell guided the ball to van Beek at second slip.
Cumming and Darren Broom tried to blunt the bowling with some stout defence and got through to drinks without further loss.
The break did Broom's concentration no favours. He provided a hip-high regulation catch for first slip shortly after the resumption.
Cumming and Sam Wells shared in Otago's most productive partnership of the innings, adding 40 runs before Cumming picked out mid-wicket.
That left Wells shouldering the burden of getting Otago through a defendable total. He top-scored with 41 but left the middle and lower order to their own devices when he got an inside edge into his pads which ballooned back to the bowler.
Neesham starred with the ball (four for 23) and entertained with some crisp hitting, getting through to 21 before he was trapped lbw.
