Everything on the line for Otago against Wellington

‘It’s going to be a tough ask, but we’re looking forward to it

THE Ford Trophy playoffs essentially start a week early for the Otago Volts.

The side is treating both today’s and Sunday’s matches as knockout games as it heads into the final weekend of the oneday competition’s roundrobin.

If it wins both games against Wellington at the Basin Reserve, it will qualify for the top three and the real playoffs.

While teams often preach concentrating on one game at a time and not getting caught up in the bigger picture, that was not too difficult in this situation.

‘‘If we win both games we’ll be through; we don’t have to rely on any results,’’ Volts coach Rob Walter said.

‘‘That makes it pretty simple from our point of view.

‘‘Year in, year out the competitions are close in New Zealand, the sides are strong and fairly evenly matched most of the time.

‘‘We’re basically in a quarterfinal right now.’’

Otago was entering the game in good form and has named an unchanged lineup from the one which beat Canterbury last Sunday.

Walter said confidence was high in team, especially after performing well in parts of the game it has struggled in this summer.

‘‘I thought our game on Sunday was definitely our most polished performance in both short formats this season.

‘‘I think the guys will definitely take heart from that.

‘‘Wellington’s a good team. They had two good wins in the weekend and their success in the T20 campaign, so they’re obviously on a roll from a performance point of view.

‘‘It’s going to be a tough ask, but we’re looking forward to it.’’

While Wellington is without Black Caps duo Devon Conway and Jimmy Neesham, it retains a quality team.

Included in that is dynamic opening batsman Finn Allen, as well as test wicketkeeperbatsman Tom Blundell.