Southland failed in its bid to wrest the Hawke Cup challenge from South Canterbury when in a great effort to beat North Otago outright at Centennial Park it failed by two wickets to achieve its target and north Otago came through with first innings points.
Prior to the match Southland trailed South Canterbury on its run rate per wicket but although it lost early wickets on the first day Kevin Burns and Ross Murdoch featured in an 82 run stand for the fourth wicket.
This took Southland through to 160 for the loss of three wickets before Richard Hoskin declared the innings closed with Southlands run rate at 31.03 compared with South Canterbury's 30.59.
Burns was in superb form played a relaxed innings o f 67 not out which was to the first leg of a fine double for the match. North Otago bowled 43 overs in the first innings with Peter Crombie and Chris Taylor all taking a wicket each.
North Otago made a bad start to its first innings losing Lindsay Robertson for eight with the total at fifteen when he mistimed a hook and was caught halfway to the boundary by Kasim Ibadulla.
Bruce McGregor and Graeme Johnson added 41 for the second wicket before Johnson was caught at second slip by Jason Wolt to give Robbie Hill his ninety ninth wicket for Southland.
Peter Cook added only sixteen with Bruce McGregor before he became victim number one hundred for Hill who with his very next ball trapped incoming batsman Chris Taylor leg before.
At 79 for 5 North Otago looked to be in dire straits but "the old firm" of Bob Wilson and Norm McKenzie saw North Otago safely through to the end of the first days play at 135 for 5.
The duo continued into the second day before the partnership was broken when Wilson was finally dismissed for 54 caught and bowled by Ibadulla after with McKenzie added 102 for the sixth wicket.
Wilson declared the innings closed about an hour before lunch at 210 for 6 with McKenzie unbeaten on 64 giving North Otago a first innings lead of 50 runs.
Hill was the most successful of the Southland bowlers toiling away for his 3 for 35 off 18 overs while Ibadulla who bowled 27 overs of offspin finished with 2 for 56.
The ball was now back in Southland's court for not only must they maintain their run rate per wicket but they must judge the declaration in the second innings to give them a chance of outright points.
Ibadulla and Gentle added 43 for the first wicket and at 120 for 4 were barely maintaining the over rate. Once again it was the Burns-Murdoch combination which came to the rescue with the pair adding 82 runs for the fifth wicket allowing Richard Hoskin to declare at 213 for 6.
Burns was unbeaten on 72 while Murdoch once again made an invaluable contribution of 37.
The declaration left North Otago the task of scoring 164 runs to win in 85 minutes and 20 overs.
The chase started disastrously with Robertson going with the total of 12; Johnson two runs later and Wilson with the score at 19.
Once again McKenzie led the recovery with a well compiled 40 but with overs running out and wickets falling with some degree of regularity the shutters were pulled into place as North Otago held on to be 115 for 8 at the close of play in their chase for the match winning 164 runs.
Southland will be rueing their dropped chances in the field with at least four catches going to ground at vital stages.
Short Scorecard(s)
Representative - Cyclone Hawke Cup - Zone Series
Southland vs North Otago at Centennial Park Oval, Oamaru
Southland 160 ( K.J. Burns 67no ) & 213-6dec ( K.J. Burns 72no, Murdoch 37 )
North Otago 210-6dec ( N.W. McKenzie 64no, R.S. Wilson 54, Hill 3-35, Ibadulla 2-56 ) & 113-8 ( N.W. McKenzie 40 )
First innings win to North Otago