North Otago moved to the top of the Hawke Cup elimination points table with an eight-wicket outright win over Southland at Whitestone Contracting stadium over the weekend.
North Otago moves to 18 points with one match remaining, with Otago Country poised on 12 points with three matches still to play.
North Otago won the toss and in damp, misty conditions put Southland in to bat.
Southland's top order made a solid start and at 110 for three looked to be set for a 200 plus total.
But it then lost three wickets at 110 and the final four wickets tumbled for the addition of only 21 runs, for the side to be all out for 131.
Right arm medium-paced bowler Ben Cant finished with five for 11, off seven overs, three of which were maidens.
Dave Simpson claimed three for 46 off his 15 overs and Paul O'Dell took two for 15.
At 17 for four North Otago looked unlikely to threaten Southland, but Sean Eathorne (49) and Scott Simpson added 57 for the fifth wicket.
Paul O'Dell (69) and Glynn Cameron (32) swung the game North Otago's way with a seventh-wicket stand of 104, before the innings closed at 194.
Former North Otago and Otago representative Craig Smith took four for 35, while Michael Beer also claimed a four-wicket bag and Jason Milne picked up the other two wickets.
At stumps on the first day, North Otago had made real inroads into Southland's second innings at 18 for four.
Southland lasted the bulk of the first session on the second day with Hamish Skelt (41) and Beer (28) providing some resistance before the innings closed at 106, leaving North Otago with the task of scoring 44 for the outright win.
North Otago lost Chris Smith(0) and Ben Cant (17) before Eathorne hit the winning boundary.
His innings of 23 not out gave him a Hawke Cup batting average of 230.
- Terry O'Neill
