Otago remain winless and rooted to the bottom of the Ford Trophy one-day competition after their 56-run loss to Wellington at the University Oval on Saturday.
The Firebirds made a decent if not intimidating total of 269 for nine, and the Volts were dismissed for 213 in the 46th over.
Six losses and a no-result mean the Volts are playing only for pride over the final three rounds of the competition.
The reality is they will need to start getting more runs out of some of their batters.
Their reply on Saturday got off to a bad start when Jack Boyle was caught behind for 3 after pushing at a wide one, and Jamal Todd miscued a slog and skied it to the off-side fielder.
Jacob Cumming was looking settled on 23 from 32 balls when he drove one straight to the catcher at cover to become a third victim of Wellington seamer Liam Dudding.
The Volts needed either a captain’s knock from Luke Georgeson or a rescue special from Max Chu, and they got a little bit of both.
Chu made his way to 18 when he got out in rather unusual fashion.
He took a couple of steps down the pitch to Peter Younghusband, found the ball arriving quicker than expected, and edged the ball halfway down the pitch for Younghusband to gratefully accept it.
Georgeson made his way to 52 off 64 balls, striking six fours and one brutal sweep for six off Jesse Tashkoff.
But the skipper was undone when he tried a reverse against Tashkoff and succeeded only in plonking it to Younghusband at gully.
Ben Lockrose (32 off 51) and Danru Ferns (30 off 45) put on 50 for the eighth wicket to delay the inevitable.
Dudding finished with four for 31 and Tashkoff three for 43 for Wellington.
Earlier, a former Volt who seems to delight in scoring runs against his old team was again the key man for the Firebirds.
After Nick Greenwood blasted 54 off 25 balls (10 fours, two sixes), Nick Kelly kept the momentum going with 81 off 118, holding the innings together as only Tom Blundell (41) offered much subsequent assistance.
Kelly must have felt a century was beckoning but he was run out when he returned for a second run and he and Younghusband nearly collided with each other.
Matt Bacon led the Otago attack with three for 43, and both Lockrose and Zac Cumming nabbed two wickets.
— Black Caps veteran Tom Latham scored his 13th one-day century to guide Canterbury to an eight-wicket win over Northern Districts in Rangiora.
Chasing 159 to win, Canterbury strolled there in 30.1 overs thanks to Latham (103 not out off 97 balls).
Former Otago batter Dean Foxcroft scored 56 to power Central Districts to a five-wicket win over Auckland.
Canterbury (28 points) lead the Ford Trophy standings from Central (23), Wellington (17), Auckland (14), Northern (12) and Otago (2).
WELLINGTON
J Tashkoff c Georgeson b Lockrose 21
N Greenwood c Z Cumming b Lockrose 54
T Robinson c & b Z Cumming 5
N Kelly run out 81
M Abbas b Z Cumming 18
T Blundell c J Cumming b Bacon 41
N Smith lbw b Bacon 9
O Jackson c Johnson b Bacon 3
P Younghusband c Georgeson b Ferns 9
J Hartshorn not out 8
L Dudding not out 2
Extras (3b, 3lb, 12w) 18
Total (for 9wkts, 50 overs) 269
Fall: 1-66, 2-79, 3-83, 4-138, 5-214, 6-232, 7-238, 8-251, 9-254.
Bowling: M Bacon 10-0-43-3 (1w), D Ferns 7-0-59-1, B Lockrose 10-1-41-2 (1w), Z Cumming 8-0-44-2 (3w), T Johnson 7-0-23-0, J McKay 8-0-53-0 (3w).
OTAGO
J Cumming c Jackson b Dudding 23
J Boyle c Blundell b Dudding 3
J Todd c Tashkoff b Dudding 4
L Georgeson c Younghusband b Tashkoff 52
M Chu c & b Younghusband 18
T Johnson c Blundell b Tashkoff 10
Z Cumming b Tashkoff 3
B Lockrose c Jackson b Hartshorn 32
D Ferns c Greenwood b Dudding 30
M Bacon not out 7
J McKay c Blundell b Hartshorn 16
Extras (2lb, 11w, 2nb) 15
Total (all out, 45.5 overs) 213
Fall: 1-19, 2-27, 3-44, 4-86, 5-104, 6-119, 7-137, 8-187, 9-191, 10-213.
Bowling: N Smith 7-0-25-0 (2w, 1nb), L Dudding 6-0-31-4 (1w), J Hartshorn 2.5-0-31-2 (2w), N Greenwood 10-0-38-0 (1nb), P Younghusband 10-0-43-1 (1w), J Tashkoff 10-2-43-3 (1w).
Result: Wellington won by 56 runs.
