The Volts slipped down the Ford Trophy competition table to last place following its four-wicket loss to Wellington at the Basin Reserve on Saturday.The top four teams go through to the playoffs and with just one round remaining, the Volts are stranded on 10 points and need a lot to go their way to reach the playoffs.
Otago must record a bonus-point win against Northern Districts (15 points) at the University Oval on Wednesday and keep its fingers crossed Auckland (15 points) can beat Central Districts (11 points).
In that scenario, Otago and Northern would be tied in fourth place and the team with the superior net run rate would progress.
Northern (-0.115) is well ahead of Otago (-0.800) so the Volts would need to win big.
Central Districts boast a tremendous net run rate of 0.719 so a win will be enough for them to make the playoffs.
The Volts are clinging on to some hope but the reality is the team has not played well enough to have earned a spot.
Otago could post only a paltry score of 153 against Wellington. Opener Gregor Croudis was one of the few batsmen who enhanced his reputation with 41 from 46.
Jeetan Patel trapped Croudis lbw and combined with Ian McPeake to skittle the Volts top order.Otago collapsed from 72 for one to 91 for six.
McPeake finished with a career-best four for 33, and Patel claimed three for 23.Otago assistant coach Anton Roux said there was "nothing to write home about" when asked about Otago’s batting display.The Volts lost five wickets for 19 runs.
"One end had a bit of bounce in it but there was no sideways movement," Roux said.
"It was actually quite a nice batting wicket. They just had the bowlers to extract a bit of bounce and McPeake did that quite nicely and our guys were found wanting."
Otago prodded down the wrong line and the edges kept coming. Wellington keeper Luke Ronchi pouched four catches.Christi Viljoen scored a run-a-ball 29 to help his side get past 150.
Wellington chased hard and lost a few more wickets than was comfortable. But victory was achieved with 24 overs remaining.Otago seamer Nathan Smith was one of the few positives to emerge from the match for the Volts. He took three 42 and gave a glimpse of his future potential, Roux said.
"It was just awesome to see him running in and bowl well [on Saturday]. That can only bode well for the future.
"Gregor Croudis stood up and got a few runs in an innings when all other batters looked like they were playing on a different wicket."
In the other games, Canterbury beat Auckland by 25 runs. Central Districts thrashed Northern Districts by a record margin of 227 runs thanks to a wonderful innings of 181 by George Worker.
