Wellington overcome Aaron Redmond for winning start

Wellington overcame a sparkling effort from Aaron Redmond, and a late collapse while chasing, to outlast Otago at Basin Reserve and make a winning start to their HRV Cup campaign. Jeetan Patel won the toss for the hosts and Damien Wright got them off to a strong start, removing Hamish Rutherford early. Redmond, however, was in a zone of his own and attacked from the outset. Neil Broom supported him with 23 in a partnership of 94 off 65 balls. Left-arm spinner Luke Woodcock's double-strike pegged the innings back, before Redmond attacked again along with Darren Stevens, who made a quick 23. Redmond struck six fours and four sixes in his 82 that came off 54 balls, but Wellington removed both batsmen in the end overs to come back into the game. Wright finished with figures of 2 for 10 in his four overs as Otago reached 153 for 6 in their 20.

Neal Parlane's early exit without scoring set up Otago for a fight, but Michael Pollard took the game away with a fearsome attack. He smashed four sixes in 32 off 15 balls to give the chase early momentum before falling off the last ball of the Poweplay, with the score 52. Stewart Rhodes anchored the innings thereafter, calmly working his way to 49 off 54 balls, while Luke Wright and Chris Nevin accelerated at the other end. At 124 for 3 in the 15th over, Wellington were on course for an easy win, but Otago had some more tricks up their sleeve. Three wickets went down for the addition of no runs in the space of five balls, as Neil Wagner raised hopes of a back-door entry for his side. Rhodes, however, batted through the slump to take his side to safety before Wright and Dewayne Bowden finished things with two balls to spare.