They have two more opportunities to avoid a winless one-day campaign and arguably a historic low.
Their Ford Trophy game against Canterbury in Invercargill yesterday was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
The teams picked up two points apiece, which was enough for Canterbury to secure a spot in the playoffs.
The Volts, however, remain stranded at the bottom of the standings, having lost all six of their completed games.
In the other games yesterday, Wellington cruised to a five-wicket win against Auckland at Eden Park Outer Oval.
Part-time spinners Nick Greenwood and Jesse Tashkoff grabbed three wickets apiece to help restrict Auckland to 240 for eight.
Muhammad Abbas (53 not out) and Tom Blundell (49 not out) put on an undefeated 68 for the sixth wicket to seal the win.
Northern Districts clinched a 69-run win against Central Districts in Hamilton.
ND posted 309 for eight. Scott Kuggeleijn (55), Xavier Bell (66) and Snehith Reddy (55 not out) all made half-centuries, while Tim Pringle nabbed four for 29 to help roll the Stags for 240.
The Volts’ next assignment is against Central Districts in Nelson on Friday, and they will round out their campaign with a game against Auckland in Queenstown on Tuesday.
They will be desperate to pick up a win and to avoid unfavourable comparisons with a couple of other disappointing summers.
The New Zealand men’s one-day competition has been operating under various guises since 1980.
Before that, a limited-overs knockout tournament was played during the 1970s.
Otago has won the one-day title just twice in all those years.
It won the Shell Cup in 1987-88 and the State Shield in 2007-08.
That does not represent much success. But the Volts have generally been competitive — with some notable exceptions.
They have two previous winless one-day seasons. They lost all five games during the summer of 1981-82 and repeated that dubious result in 1989-90.
Both those campaigns, while disappointing, were played during a nine-day window in the Christmas-New Year holiday period.
They only played five round-robin games and the tournament flashed by. There was simply no time to bring in new players or change tactics once the results were not going well.
The class of 2025-26 has had plenty of time to ruminate and scheme.
They opened the tournament with a six-wicket loss to Canterbury in Christchurch in late October.
They backed up with a dismal run chase against Auckland and laboured to a seven-run loss to Central Districts in Dunedin the following week.
They slipped to 0-4 with a four-wicket loss to Wellington and finished the first round with a rained-off game against Northern Districts.
The competition resumed last week after a long break, and the Volts banked two more decisive losses before yesterday’s abandonment.
The rained-off game was a blow for 17-year-old Albion batter Hugo Bogue, who was set to make his debut for the Volts, while fellow youngsters Mason Clarke and Thomas O’Connor were also called into the squad.
