The home side has not given up hope of escaping with a win but some good bowling from Canterbury on day three has enabled the visiting side to move into the box seat.
Otago resumed on 68 for two looking to push on after dismissing Canterbury for 199. But left-armer Willie Lonsdale had not read that script. He bustled in and hit the deck hard and caused plenty of problems, taking three for 58 from 20 overs. And Edward Nuttall also bowled well on debut with two for 42.
Otago was dismissed for 197 and when bad light, or rather shadows on the pitch, brought play to a close shortly after 6pm, Canterbury had reached 119 for three and a lead of 121.
The Volts were buoyed by the dismissal of Shanan Stewart late in the day for 47 and will need quick wickets this morning if they are to turn their fortunes around.
"We've got a little bit of a chance if we bowl well [this] morning," Otago captain Derek de Boorder said.
"If we can keep the lead to about 200 then maybe we'll have a chance."
Runs will be at a premium with the pitch expected to get slower and offer inconsistent bounce, making strokeplay difficult.
"We got ourselves into a reasonable position and were hoping to try and push on and get a bit of a lead but we lost too many wickets," de Boorder said.
"We've done that a lot this year. We had a plan to address that, but, yeah ..."
Otago made a poor start to the morning session, losing four wickets for the addition of 40 runs. Hamish Rutherford took 25 balls before he added to his overnight total of 29 with a superb drive through the covers but was undone next ball by Lonsdale, who nipped one back.
Neil Broom chopped on for 29 and Darren Broom and Nathan McCullum appeared aggrieved at lbw decisions which went against them.
Having slumped to 108 for six, Sam Wells and de Boorder set about reviving the innings. Wells played some delightful drives and dispatched Todd Astle for a four and six over midwicket, and de Boorder hung in despite having a torrid time against Lonsdale.
The 25-year-old made life uncomfortable for the Otago captain, who was kept on his toes fending off bouncers.
Wells batted with more freedom and raised his 50 shortly after the lunch break, pulling Astle to midwicket for six, but was out lbw the next ball. It brought a 70-run stand to an end and Otago's innings folded quickly thereafter.
Confusion accounted for de Boorder. He pushed the ball towards gully and set off for a quick single. Neil Wagner came about halfway down the pitch, albeit tentatively, before changing his mind.
De Boorder hesitated but was committed and kept coming. Both batsman arrived at the non-striker's end at about the same time.
Wagner bowed his head momentarily, and de Boorder charged towards the umpire and stood with hands on hips waiting for a decision. Umpire Wayne Knights pointed an apologetic finger his way.
Tailenders are not meant to run the batsmen out, especially when they are set at the crease as de Boorder was, and they are certainly not meant to hang around waiting for the umpire to adjudicate.
You take one for the team. It is an unwritten rule.
It was fodder for Canterbury which used the incident to needle Wagner (10) and he was out shortly after.
Canterbury suffered an early setback in its second innings with the captain, Peter Fulton, getting a faint edge through to the keeper, and George Worker was well caught by a diving Michael Bracewell in the gully.
In a slice of trivia worth noting, there are seven players in the game whose fathers all played first-class cricket. For Otago, Hamish Rutherford, Michael Bracewell and Nathan McCullum are second-generation cricketers and, from Canterbury, Todd Astle, Edward Nuttall, Matt McEwan and Tom Latham all followed in their father's footsteps.
