And Matt Bacon finished it off with the ball at the death.
Otago nabbed a 10-run victory against the Canterbury Kings at Molyneux Park this evening in balmy conditions on the back of a wonderful shift from the stand-in captain, Chu.
Chu, who led Otago in the absence of Luke Georgeson, finished with 82 runs, surpassing his previous best of 34.
He led from the front in several partnerships throughout the innings and pushed them to run hard through the wickets.
“I went out in the power play and tried to get a couple away, the ball swung around a little bit and then it got pretty hot - just kept trying to hit it up instead of running,’’ Chu told TVNZ.
“Molyneux’s a ground we love playing at . . . there’s some pretty unique pockets on this ground, so it was good to get a couple away.’’
But Chu credited his bowling attack, including Bacon, who polished Canterbury off in the final over.
Canterbury – stacked with Black Caps - needed 16 off the over and Ish Sodhi and Henry Shipley tried to run through from a dot ball.
Chu cleaned them with a run out, Bacon grabbed Angus McKenzie for an lbw the next ball, and Michael Rae was run out on the last ball by Ben Lockrose.
Earlier Otago posted 165 for nine after being sent in to bat.
Opener Dale Phillips cracked a lovely boundary through the covers, but then fellow opener Jamal Todd was bowled for a duck.
Phillips was then bowled from Kyle Jamieson’s inswinging delivery which left Otago at 14 for two.
Chu pummelled a big six on to the banks and then found a boundary through square leg.
Dean Foxcroft went for 12 and Llew Johnson went for a golden duck to leave Otago 64 for four.
Leo Carter settled, swept a nice shot to the boundary and then a reverse to the other side as he and Chu started to build.
After bringing up his half-century, Chu skied his shot high in to the air in what was a guaranteed catch, but Jamieson dropped him on 53.
Carter and Chu made a superb partnership of 69 runs. Shipley bowled Carter for 35 and Otago were 132 for five.
Canterbury finished the innings strong to slow down Otago’s run rate. Chu chopped it on, Lockrose was bowled, as was Andrew Hazeldine.
Canterbury’s bowling attack fielded a wealth of depth with returning Black Caps seamers Jamieson (two for 26) and Shipley (one for 29) and spinner Sodhi.
Cole McConchie struck with consecutive wickets to finish with figures of two for 23 and McKenzie picked up two for 15 at the death.
Canterbury were set a target of 166 and got off to a good start.
Young 17-year-old Mason Clarke opened the bowling for Otago on debut and nearly took a wicket with his first delivery.
Foxcroft dropped Chad Bowes when he dived to the right for a stunning effort that just bobbled out of his hand.
Bowes ramped up through the opening overs, smashing a monster six over the top of the clubrooms and started pummelling the Volts.
But Clarke produced a slower ball that Foxcroft snapped up to remove Bowes for 24.
Lockrose picked up a wicket with his opening ball. Tom Latham was stumped by Chu and went for four, leaving Canterbury 29 for two.
Matt Boyle and McConchie started to find the boundaries and looked to start to hurt Otago
But Boyle clipped Foxcroft’s delivery to Clarke to break the partnership at 74 for three.
McConchie (49) continued to chip away and was the danger man until Phillips caught him in the deep.
Michael Rippon went for four and Jamieson was bowled to leave Canterbury 116 for seven.
The Volts pressured through the latter overs to restrict Canterbury and pull the game back.
Phillips finished Jake Gibson’s penultimate over, after Gibson injured his hand, and finished with two runs.
