Better Volts batting could be key against Auckland

No-one in the Otago line-up was born the last time the Volts won the Plunket Shield.

That drought will not end this summer. The Volts are nestled near the bottom of the Plunket Shield standings with two games remaining.

The side made progress in the white-ball formats this season, reaching the elimination final of the Super Smash and Ford Trophy.

But it is 35 years and counting since Otago last won the first-class competition and it remains the best gauge of a team’s overall strength.

The 2012-13 season shaped as the best chance to end the barren run. Otago still had a chance to claim the title going into the last day of the last round.

The Volts needed 200 to beat Wellington but crumbled to be all out for 145 and had to settle to second place.

It has been the batting which has mostly let Otago down during the intervening years.

For the most part, the Volts have finished in the lower reaches of the standings and there has been a close correlation between where they finished and how many batting points they accumulated.

Batting points are awarded during the first innings. Teams get their first point at 200 runs, a second at 250, a third at 300 and a fourth at 350.

Batting points can be registered during only the first 110 overs of the first innings. That encourages teams to play a positive brand of cricket.

Otago has struggled to amass batting points. This season the Volts have nine batting points, equal-worst in the competition.

The Volts have scored more than 300 in their first innings just once this season and have not collected maximum batting points in any of their six games.

Canterbury, which leads the competition , has four first-innings scores of 400 or more and has secured maximum batting points four times.

This has been the long way of reaching a very obvious conclusion — the Volts have not scored enough runs.

Not even close.

There have been a couple of recent highlights. Dean Foxcroft brought up his maiden first-class hundred last month, and Glenn Phillips scored his first hundred for the Volts in his last outing.

Otago captain Hamish Rutherford (160 runs at 14.52) has had a very lean season and is due.

The Volts will lean on that trio for its match against Auckland, which begins in Alexandra today.

Otago has made one change. Pace bowler Michael Rae returns from an injury break and replaces left-arm spinner Ben Lockrose in the 12.

Auckland has one change too. Left-arm spinner Louis Delport replaces pace bowler Lockie Ferguson, who is preparing for the IPL.

Plunket Shield

The teams

Otago: Hamish Rutherford (captain), Thorn Parkes, Dean Foxcroft, Glenn Phillips, Dale Phillips, Michael Rippon, Max Chu, Travis Muller, Jacob Duffy, Michael Rae, Jarrod McKay, Jake Gibson.

Auckland: Will O'Donnell, Sean Solia, Mark Chapman, Robbie O'Donnell (captain), George Worker, Quinn Sunde, Ben Horne, Will Somerville, Danru Ferns, Louis Delport, Adithya Ashok, Simon Keene.

Alexandra, 10.30am