In the original draw the first qualifier was scheduled to play fourth on Friday night, which pitted Canterbury against Central Districts, while second plays third, which is Wellington hosting Auckland.

However, because Wellington starts a four-day match against India on Sunday it has to play on Friday night, but neither association's main cricket venue yet has floodlights, a pre-requisite for the match to be screened live by Sky Television.

New Zealand Cricket operations manager John Reid said it was decided yesterday that Auckland and Wellington will also meet in Christchurch on the Friday night.

``It will mean greater costs and a neutral venue when we would have preferred otherwise, but we wanted to maintain the cricket integrity of one v four and two v three as set down in the rules.''

Canterbury will play Central Districts on Sunday afternoon, starting at 1pm. Meanwhile Canterbury had to desperately defend the Max zone for the final ball of its match against Auckland on Sunday before winning outright. Auckland wanted an improbable 37 from the final four balls of the last over bowled by Mark Hastings, but big-hitting from Aaron Barnes gave it hope.

Barnes belted two Max zone 12s and a six to leave just seven required from the final ball, but Canterbury stacked all its fielders around the zone and Hastings bowled a demanding delivery to ensure Auckland fell short by six runs.

Scores:

Canterbury 104-5 (Chris Cairns 28, Tim Walton 24, Llorne Howell 22; Richard Morgan 2-15) and 134-5 (Howell 53, Stephen Fleming 30; Mark Haslam 2-23) bt Auckland 119-4 (Ian Billcliff 29; Cairns 2-10) and 113-3 (Aaron Barnes 72no, Billcliff 26) by six wickets.

Final round-robin points:

Canterbury 19 1, Wellington 14 2, Auckland 11 3, Central Districts 10 4, Otago 3 5, Northern Districts 3 6.