Despite picking up its first victory of the Ford Trophy win only in the last round - a four-wicket win, with nine balls to spare against Central Districts on Sunday - the make-up of the competition means Otago still has a sniff at making the playoffs.
The top four teams qualify for the semifinals and though Otago is last, on four points, the two teams above it, Central Districts and Wellington, are only four points ahead of it, and not far out of reach.
Otago has made one change to its team. Ian Butler is in the Black Caps squad and all-rounder Mark Craig has come into the 12.
He may be a chance to play, bringing three spinners into the team, with Nathan McCullum and Nick Beard also due to line up.
Beard has been performing well in the shorter version of the game, while McCullum has qualities in both batting and bowling.
Otago coach Vaughn Johnson said the win on Sunday was the team's best performance of the competition and they structured their play well.
With a couple of teams just above them, if results went their way and they kept on winning then Otago could come into finals contention.
But it is not going to be easy against Northern Districts on a flat wicket in Mt Maunganui.
Canterbury knocked up more than 350 in the previous game there, one of many big scores in the last few games around the country.
Johnson said there appeared to be a lot of flat wickets at this stage of the season, not surprising with the hot weather over the past weeks.
He also thought more teams were looking to bowl wicket balls, rather than just containing batsmen, and that led to higher totals being posted.
Blake Park was a high-scoring ground so Johnson said it was hard to get a gauge on what would be a defendable total.
The Otago side had stayed in the North Island after playing at New Plymouth on Sunday and Johnson said it would be good to get home and play the final two games of the competition. Those two games are both at the University Oval, against Canterbury and Auckland next week.
Northern Districts sit in third place on the table just three points behind Auckland. ND had a heavy 108-run defeat to Canterbury on Sunday, but has retained the same 12 which lost that game.
Black Caps all-rounder Corey Anderson will miss the game because of a thumb injury.
Otago v Northern Districts
Mt Maunganui, today
Otago: Derek de Boorder (captain), Aaron Redmond, Michael Bracewell, Sam Wells, Neil Broom, Nathan McCullum, Ian Robertson, Jimmy Neesham, Nick Beard, James McMillan, Jacob Duffy, Mark Craig.
Northern Districts: James Marshall (captain), Graeme Aldridge, Brent Arnel, Jono Boult, Anton Devcich, Cameron Fletcher, Daniel Flynn, Jono Hickey, Daryl Mitchell, Ish Sodhi, Anurag Verma, Brad Wilson.
