Otago has made one change for its final outing of the season, with all-rounder Sam Wells returning from injury for the match against Wellington starting today at the Basin Reserve.
Wells, who has recovered from a strained hamstring, replaces Black Caps middle-order batsman Neil Broom, who broke his finger in the drawn match with Northern Districts in Whangarei last week.
Wells will be looking to build on his form.
The batting all-rounder has had a breakthrough season, taking two five-wicket bags and scoring his maiden first-class 100.
Otago and Wellington are both out of the running for the Plunket Shield.
Northern Districts has one hand on the trophy with 44 competition points but Canterbury (36 points) still has a slim chance of capturing the title, if it can secure maximum points (eight) in its away match against Auckland and Northern Districts fails to pick up any points against Central Districts, in Napier.
While the first-class title is out of reach, Otago (28 points) has an opportunity to claw its way up the competition table to third place and captain Craig Cumming is chasing Bert Sutcliffe's record of 17 centuries for the province.
He needs one more to draw level with the great left-hander.
Cumming is in the twilight of a fantastic first-class career but rather than fading out, the 34-year-old right-hander just keeps getting better.
He is the competition's second-highest run-scorer this summer, with 818 runs at an average of 62.92, including three 100s, and in 74 first-class matches for Otago has scored 5131 runs at 43.11.
Cumming has played 11 tests but told the Otago Daily Times late last year he did not believe he would play another, because the selectors indicated to him they were looking to blood younger players.
At the other end of the spectrum, Darren Broom made the best possible start to his first-class career, with a century on debut.
The right-hander became the first Otago player to achieve that feat in 66 years.
The last to do so was David Watt, against Canterbury, in Christchurch in the 1943-44 season.
Interestingly, that was Watt's only first-class match.
John McMullan was the only other player from the province to score 100 on debut when he made an undefeated 157 against Southland, in Dunedin in the 1917-18 season.
Wellington coach Anthony Stuart could not be reached for comment, but Black Caps batsman Jesse Ryder has passed a fitness test and is expected to play, as is all-rounder James Franklin, who was released from the test team.
