The positive news is Otago will not play a team that good again this season.
And there were some other promising storylines despite an eight-wicket defeat to Northern Districts in Mount Maunganui yesterday.
Expectations in the South had plummeted when news emerged Northern Districts would field a side featuring six internationals.
That gloomy outlook was justified when Otago slumped to be all out for just 108 in its first innings. But some wonderful spells from Nathan Smith (three for 34) and Matthew Bacon (four for 31) dragged the Volts back into the match.
Opener Hamish Rutherford batted superbly in the second innings. He got through a combative spell from Neil Wagner and Trent Boult on a responsive pitch to post his 12th first-class century and perhaps one of his best.
But ultimately Northern Districts was left chasing 204 runs for victory and Kane Williamson made batting look that much easier than anyone else. He eventually holed out for 83 trying to loft leg-spinner Michael Rippon for a second six in the over. But his dismissal came much too late for Otago.
Opener Henry Cooper made 66 not out to help his side overhaul the target.
History will record a comfortable victory for the home team. Volts coach Rob Walter felt his side could have been more ruthless when Northern Districts was 59 for eight in its first innings.
Trent Boult smashed 61 from 37 to help his team snatch a modest lead of 28 runs.
"We could have been a bit smarter in the way we executed our plans to Boult. That might have given us a lead instead of a deficit.
"Would that have influenced the overall result in the game? Who is to know?
"There is potential for us to improve there and, from a batting point of view, there is a hell of a lot the players will take out of it.
"We have a very young and inexperienced group of batters who were up against a test bowling line-up on a good cricket wicket with a bit in it.
"For them that is a huge learning experience. The only place you can get that experience is from competing against those types of bowlers."
Williamson put on a quality display of batting in Northern Districts’ second innings but he got a cracker from Smith on the opening day.
That will have done wonders for Smith’s confidence. But just watching Williamson bat and how he went about his work yesterday was a lesson "for our young bowling group".
"They got to bowl to one of the best batsmen in the world and you can’t do that in the nets. ‘You have to go out there and bowl to batsmen of Williamson’s calibre to see where you need to improve."
No play was possible in Nelson or Wellington yesterday, so the other two games have not advanced and are seemingly destined for draws.
