The Volts crashed to their fifth consecutive loss in the Plunket Shield this season.
The latest loss was perhaps its worst and there is plenty of competition.
Auckland seamer Matt McEwan took five for 23 to help dismiss Otago for a paltry 86 and secure a win by an innings and 97 runs at Eden Park Outer Oval on Saturday.
It is not the Volts' first innings defeat this summer. It is actually their third and the other two losses have been by eight wickets or more. There has been a lot of humble pie.
But what elevates this capitulation to the top of the list is the 15 wickets the team lost in a touch more than 39 overs.
The Volts were 147 for five at stumps on day two, in reply to Auckland's total of 337.
The visitors were in a snug spot. But with a bit of rain in the forecast, the escape hatch was wide open.
All Otago needed to do was spend some time at the crease, collect rare batting bonus point or two and perhaps even lift its net runs per wicket tally.
That certainly did not happen. The Volts lost their last five first innings wickets for seven runs and were promptly asked to follow on.
Worse was to come. McEwan dropped on to an impeccable length - something the Otago bowling unit had not been able to muster - and the wickets tumbled.
He got a lot of help from the pitch. The ball really did nip about. The wicketkeeper and slip cordon were busier than an intersection in Hanoi.
Otago was 10 for three, then five for 22. The best partnership of the innings was 34, for the seventh wicket.
"There was a lot in the wicket but we just weren't good enough in all departments," Otago coach Rob Walter acknowledged.
"It is very difficult to say [what when wrong], to be honest. If I knew that, it would make life easier.
"But if I look at the dismissals, none of them were really horrific cricket shots. The guys weren't playing expansive drives. Most of them were defensive pushes which were caught in the slips.
"We certainly tried to counteract the seam movement. Guys came out of their crease, moved on to off stump, some went deep, so it wasn't as if we weren't trying to be proactive.
"We had spoken about the conditions ... but when it starts sliding like that, it is difficult to stop the rot."
Otago made the final of the one-day tournament this season. But its results in first-class cricket have been abysmal.
In the past three seasons the team has lost 16 and won just three of its 25 games. So where to now for Otago?
"That's a hell of a question," Walter responded.
"To be as poor as we have with the bat is unacceptable, really. We steadily drip-fed some new players in to the team and it is probably an opportunity to continue doing that.
"We can see if there are others ... who can get us beyond where we currently are as a batting group. But at the end of the day, the guys are still trying to do the right thing."
Canterbury beat Central Districts by two wickets in a low-scoring fixture in Rangiora. Black Cap Matt Henry helped set up the win with a five-wicket bag in the first innings.
At the Basin Reserve, Northern Districts clung on to draw, helped by the weather.
Chasing a target of 373 for the win, the visitors were 312 for nine when play was abandoned. Wellington paceman Hamish Bennett collected five for 68.
