Chad Bowes eviscerated the Otago bowling yesterday in a world-record onslaught at Hagley Oval.
The 32-year-old Canterbury opener dragged his side through to a mammoth tally of 343 for nine.
He clubbed, smashed, bashed, stroked, clobbered, flayed, blasted, flogged, swatted, slapped, creamed and whacked his way to 205 from 110 balls — the second-highest tally in the history of the competition.
He brought up 200 off just 103 balls which made it the fastest double ton in list A history. He eclipsed the previous world record mark of 114 balls which Travis Head and Narayan Jagadeesan shared.
All-rounder Zak Foulkes chipped in with an undefeated 49 from 46 balls.
But for most of the innings, Bowes, whose previous best was 126, played more or less a lone hand.
No-one else could really get going.
Otago seamer Matt Bacon took five for 50 which was a tremendous effort in the context of the innings.
But the Volts crashed to a 240-run loss, the heaviest defeat by a runs margin in the history of the competition.
Otago coach Ashley Noffke said their momentum was hard to stop once Bowes got going "and the game was only rolling one way".
"But I think Bacs [Bacon] did an incredible job in those conditions and [Ben Lockrose] bowled incredibly well going for just 4.7 in the heat of that onslaught from Bowes."
"So there was some good stuff but some really average execution and the guys know that.
"They really used the conditions with the new ball a lot better than us and that was the game."
It has certainly been a topsy-turvy start to the season.
Otago posted a mammoth 175-run win against Northern Districts in their opening game in Whangarei on Sunday.
Otago needed to make a strong start to their chase.
But Foulkes (two for 13) and Sean Davey (three for 23) were basically unplayable with the new ball.
Foulkes nipped the ball back from outside off to bowl both Dale Phillips and Dean Foxcroft, who were left bewildered by how much the ball had jagged back.
Thorn Parkes nicked out to a decent delivery from Davey and Leo Carter got trapped lbw from a ball which nipped back lots and kept low.
Llew Johnson holed out having a heave and Otago found themselves 32 for five and trailing by 311 with the entire top order already gone.
There was one small consolation for Otago fans as their team cascaded towards 103 all out — the one-camera livestream was decidedly blurry, so people were spared some of the true horror.
Bowes must have woken up angry. He struck four fours in the opening over of the game. Three of those were exquisite cover drives which will require a rewrite of the textbook they were that mint.
The other was flat-batted back over Travis Muller’s head.
The Otago medium pacer went for 17 runs.
Andrew Hazeldine nabbed an early wicket, though. Henry Nicholls sliced a catch to Muller who was nursing a bruised ego down at third man.
Bacon removed both Mitch Hay and Rhys Mariu in the 13th over and went on to claim his second five-wicket bag in the format.
But Bowes, playing his 100th list A game, continued dismantling the bowling from the other end. His 50 came off just 26 balls and he sped through to a century off 53 balls — the fifth-fastest in the competition’s history.
Bowes was cramping up as he approached his double ton and he was eventually trapped in front by Bacon, having played a swipe across the line.
He middled just about everything else. In all, he collected 27 fours and seven sixes.
In the other two games, Northern Districts posted 352 for eight from 44 overs in New Plymouth. Tim Seifert scored 102. Despite centuries from Brad Schmulian and Jack Boyle, Central Districts’ chase fell eight runs short.
In Tauranga, Auckland stumbled to 140 all out and Wellington recorded a six-wicket win.
