The Volts cruised to a six-wicket win against Auckland in a one-day game at Eden Park Outer Oval yesterday.
The bowlers set up the win with another tidy display.
Michael Rae added to the seven wickets he took against Auckland on Sunday with another three-wicket haul yesterday, while Anaru Kitchen, Michael Rippon and Angus McKenzie bagged two apiece.
McKenzie’s spell of two for 22 from nine overs was instrumental in clawing back the run rate after the home team made a decent enough start.
Will O’Donnell got the Aces through to a below-par 225 with a knock of 85 from 110 deliveries.
Without his contribution, the scorecard made rather disappointing reading from Auckland’s point of view.
Martin Guptill appeared to get a stinker on 40, though.
He was given out caught behind but the ball very much looked like it ballooned from his forearm.
His wicket stifled some early momentum for the Aces.
Otago was set a reasonably modest target on Sunday but slumped to 18 for five and ended up losing by 133 runs despite Rae rewriting the Otago record books with a seven-wicket effort.
The batsmen had a fair bit of ground to make up and recovered a good amount during yesterday’s win.
Nick Kelly (61) and Mitchell Renwick (40) put on 97 for the first wicket.
It was kind of hard to mess it from there.
Experienced campaigners Neil Broom and Anaru Kitchen (32) took another sizable chunk out of the target.
Josh Finnie went to the reverse sweep early and perished for eight runs from four balls.
Luckily, the other Broom was more patient.
The veteran right-hander clipped the winning runs in the 44th over having played a starring role with his undefeated innings of 68 from 73 deliveries.
Volts coach Rob Walter was thrilled with the bowling performance.
"Gus McKenzie stood out. His effort was excellent and the guys chipped in around him," Walter said.
"Anaru Kitchen bowled an awesome spell at the end — six overs in a row at the death. And obviously the opening stand helped set up the win and Neil did well to get us across the line."
Otago has three wins from four games and is in third place behind Canterbury and Northern Districts who also have three wins from four games.
Northern Districts got up to beat Canterbury by three wickets in a last over thriller at Hagley Oval yesterday.
Canterbury’s Ken McClure and Northern's Jeet Raval both scored 105.
The game between Wellington and Central Districts in Palmerston North was abandoned without a ball bowled.
Otago’s next assignment is a double-header against Northern Districts at the University Oval on December 13 and 15. It will be the Volts first games in Dunedin this season.
