Only one of the three Ford Trophy games could be played on Saturday, which after Otago Volts defeated Auckland Aces, saw the Volts cap off a fairly dramatic rebuild in sealing a final spot. The Aces will get another chance taking on Wellington Firebirds in the elimination final on Wednesday, with the winner to play Otago on Saturday.

Otago have been impressive throughout the Ford Trophy and I'll roll through this in a jiffy, although it's important to note how the weather worked in their favour. The Volts finished 1 point ahead of Wellington and had Wellington won their game vs Northern Districts, they would have probably finished in the top spot as the Firebirds would have received 4 points for a win, not 2 for an abandoned/no result game. Auckland finished 9 points behind Otago, so they were always likely to be heading towards the elimination final.

Scoring 283 first up, the Volts had contributions from Neil Broom (50), Nathan Smith (42), Shawn Hicks (45) and Anaru Kitchen (43). Chuck in some handy finishing from Josh Finnie (37* off 24) and Christi Viljoen (37* off 25), to offer a scorecard that highlights how solid contributions throughout the batting line up are as important as the big knocks.

Auckland fell 4 runs short in reply, stranded on 280/7. Ben Horne hit 63 at the top, along with Craig Cachopa (53) and Michael Barry (52*off 47) to take the Aces within a whisker. Jacob Duffy and Nathan Smith took 2w each and Warren Barnes took that the spot of Mathew Bacon (12th man) with a wicket as well.

Otago have a couple of big dawgs in skipper Duffy who is still 2nd in wickets behind Hamish Bennett with 22w @ 19.77avg/4.81rpo. Bacon's in 3rd with 16w @ 25.31avg/6.1rrpo and on the batting side, Hamish Rutherford sits in 4th with 393 runs @ 65.50avg/82.91sr despite missing the last few rounds away on Aotearoa A duty - where Rutherford hit 114 to go with his two Ford Trophy centuries and one Plunket Shield century this season.

The beauty in this Otago team though is in the sneaky performances of various lads who creep under the radar. Neil Broom for example, hasn't been in sizzling form but has chimed in with decent runs on a consistent basis; three 50+ scores, two 40+ scores and Broom's passing 40 in half his Ford Trophy innings. That's good enough to have Broom 8th in runs, even though others have squeezed out more centuries or score quicker than Broom's 71.57sr.

Mitch Renwick moved down from Central Districts to replace Derek de Boorder as wicket-keeper and he's the only other top-order batsman from Otago to put up 200+ runs. Yet Renwick's 259 runs have come at an average of 25.90 and he's only got a single 50+ score in 10inns. Among those 259 runs are a couple 40+ scores and only 1inns with a score less than 10. This again points to a batsman who can chip in steadily, along with illuminating the reliance on those finishers down the order.

Nathan Smith was one of those, until he was bumped up the order to bat #4 and Smith's move has seen him put up scores of 43, 71, 1 and 42. Having Smith bat #4/#5 and bowl 10 overs allows the Volts to play with Josh Finnie, Michael Rippon and Christi Viljoen further down the order. Finnie has flourished when smacking the ball around and his 232 runs @ 32.71avg have come with a strike-rate of 115.65 which is on par with Jimmy Neesham and Brett Hamption (200+ run batsman).

Finnie also has 2 not out innings and Rippon joins Finnie on 2 not out innings. Rippon only has one 50+ score but has 218 runs @ 36.33avg/92.37sr and while he didn't make an impact in this last game vs Auckland, Rippon had scores of 42, 38*, 71* and 37 in the 4inns prior. Viljoen only has 88 runs, but with 5 not out innings (out of 6inns) and a strike-rate of 166.03, Viljoen oozes efficiency in his lower order role.

In Finnie, Rippon and Viljoen, Otago may have the best trio of finishers in the Ford Trophy. Sprinkle in the reasonably consistent 20+ scores of Broom, Renwick, Smith and the veteran Brad Wilson and you've got a batting line up that's going to compete in most circumstances. They key factor here though is that Duffy (2nd), Bacon (3rd), Rippon (10th) and Smith (14th) each have 10+ wickets, allowing the Volts a flow of confidence with bat and ball.

Such confidence and steady performances throughout the team have seen the Volts win 7 of 10 games, most under the guidance of skipper Duffy. There's experience around Duffy to assist him and you'd expect nothing less from a team that has cracked a final spot on the back of regular contributions from a variety of different players.

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Peace and love 27.