North Otago completed its most successful Hawke Cup elimination round when it defeated Mid Canterbury by an innings and 62 runs.
In its three previous zone four games North Otago had recorded outright wins over Otago Country and Southland and beat South Canterbury on the first innings and is confirmed as the Zone four challenger.
Mid Canterbury won the toss at the Ashburton Domain on Saturday morning. That joy increased as, after nine overs, North Otago slumped to 23 for three.
But this confidence was shortlived, as Ben Cant and Jeremy Smith produced a fourth-wicket stand of 211. Cant was eventually out leg before to Ryan Cockburn for 146, an innings that contained 22 fours and a six.
Cant's innings took his season's tally of runs to 541, putting him top of the batting table for North Otago and heading off the likes of Jarrod Waldron, Grant Billcliff and Bob Wilson.
It gave him 1773 runs in his North Otago career, leapfrogging into sixth place ahead of Mark Wilson. Smith was bowled by Richard Print for 71, with the total still at 234.
Young guns Brady Kingan (42) and Llewellyn Johnston(24) added 49 runs for the seventh wicket before the innings closed at 323.
Richard Print took three for 84 and Bevan Ravenscroft and Ryan Cockburn took two wickets each. Mid Canterbury's fortunes continued to dip in the final hour of the first day and at stumps it was 26 for four.
Mid Canterbury was dismissed yesterday for a mere 71 and North Otago enforced the follow-on with a lead of 252. Francois Mostert took five for 23 off 16.3 overs to give him his 10th five-wicket bag for North Otago, and Brad Fleming took two for 32.
The Mid Canterbury second innings concluded 20 minutes after the tea break, at 190, Des Kruger top-scored with 58 and James Southby added 36. Callum Gallagher, Bo Houston, Matt Tait and William Southby all made it into the 20s.
Bowling for North Otago, Stephan Grobler took five for 71 and Francois Mostert three for 16, to give him an eight-wicket bag for the match.
● England captain Alastair Cook posted his first half-century of the series against South Africa with an unbeaten 67 as England finished on 138 for two, still 337 runs behind South Africa's 475 at the close on the second day of the final test on Saturday, Reuters reports.
Cook is 50 short of becoming the first England batsman to reach 10,000 test runs.
South Africa wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock earlier reached his maiden test century with a fluent, unbeaten 129 from 128 balls before running out of partners.
De Kock smashed 17 fours and two sixes in a mixture of finesse and a brutal attack on the bowling.
By Terry O'Neill.
