Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson is seldom an optimist, never a pessimist but often a realist and his satisfaction with his team's position at the end of the second day of their Shell Trophy match against Otago at the Basin Reserve today suggested it was stronger than it seemed.

It was clear that Wellington held a comfortable position, leading by 180 with seven second innings wickets in hand, though they had taken an undulating path to that two-day stronghold.

Their's was not yet an unassailable position, though it might have been if Wellington had batted more authoritatively early in their second innings - they recovered from 63/3 to 100/3 by stumps - and if they had contained Otago after having them 70/5 early in the morning session.

That was the particular nature of this largely uneventful third day. Wellington manouevered towards stong positions, then briefly lost the initiative, regained it and lost it again - the magnitude of their advantage ebbed and flowed with tidal regularity.

After posting 272 in their first innings yesterday - a satisfying total after they had been 51/5, they had Otago 70/5, let them recover to 139/6, then bowled them out for 192 to seize an 80-run first innings lead. Again, the ambiguous nature of the match revealed itself: 272 was not a commanding first innings but it was satisfactory, nor was 80 an overwhelming first innings lead but it was competitive.

Then Wellington lost the wickets of Matthew Bell, Selwyn Blackmore and Grant Donaldson when their lead was only 143 and their control of the match seemed once more to be on the ebb. But Richard Jones and Stephen Mather played a vital if unspectacular hand when they batted through the last half of the final session to lift Wellington to 100/3 and to make their position more defensible.

Jones, who suffered the unpleasantness of a first ball duck in the first innings, batted with far more circumspection than is his nature to reach 39 not out and stumps and Mather also curbed an aggressive tendancy to reach 16 in a 37-run partnership before stumps.

Had another wicket fallen after Donaldson was out when Wellington was 63, had another two wickets fallen, Otago would have found themselves very much back in the match. They had already gone some way towards redressing the balance of the day when they had Bell's wicket for one, shouldering arms to a straight and low delivery from Karl O'Dowda, and Blackmore's for 23, caught behind from Craig Pryor's bowling when Wellington was 48.

Once again Wellington fought back to a position of strength, though this match is far from decided. There are two full days remaining and Wellington have too much respect for the ability of Otago's top order, and for their fighting spirit, to claim a points decision yet.

They have two points already for a first innings lead and those are important to their championship campaign. They now stand four points clear of Otago at the top of the table. But they would dearly like an outright win as they enter the last phase of their campaign - their final matches against Auckland and Northern Districts.

"I suppose one of the cliches of cricket is that the third innings of any match is the most important," a reflective Johnson said. "It had been a close contest for first innings points, though we ended up leading by 80 runs, but it would tend to loosen our grip if we didn't go on in the second innings to get a good score.

"It didn't look too great at 60/3 again but I thought Jones and Mather batted well in one of the more compact sessions of the match to put us in a stronger position.

"It's too early in the game to be looking at totals and targets. There are six sessions left and that represents a lot of cricket. But we have to make sure we bat well tomorrow, see where we end up at lunch and aim to control the match from there.

"If you look at Otago's top five, it compares with any top five in the country. Cumming is striking it well, Gaffaney is a match winner in one-day and four-day stuff, particularly in the four-dayers because the gaps are there for him, and Hore comes in at five. They've got a good top order and we have to be aware of that.

"I don't know what the wicket will do. The odd one is keeping low and Paul Wiseman was getting a bit of turn so that's another consideration. We also know Otago have a great fighting spirit. Denis Aberhart has groomed them that way just as he groomed Canterbury to fight for everything. His teams play to win so we would never under-estimate them."

But Wellington's is certainly the preferable position at the end of the second day.

They made a good start today, snaring the wickets of Hore and Croy to have Otago 70/5 after they had resumed at 42/3. At that stage there was talk in the Wellington dressing room of Otago failing to reach the follow on mark of 122.

But Gaffaney continued a fine summer with an innings of 62 in 158 minutes, in a partnership of 69 with Pryor in 75 minutes, which led Otago to 139/6. The match was then relatively evenly poised.

Gaffaney had reached his half century in 129 minutes with a six from Jeetan Patel and his entire innings included 10 boundaries from 111 balls.

His wicket was a vital one and Wellington had regained some control when they also had Pryor for 24 just before lunch. Otago were 145/7 at the interval. Then a series of sticky partnerships delayed the end of Otago's innings and Wellington had to remove the troublesome Karl O'Dowda for 24, Wiseman for 14 and Bradley Scott for 12 before they could count their lead.

They had Otago all out for 192 and finally established a lead which gives them a vantage point over the next two days.

Johnson stopped short of calling this match vital to Wellington's Trophy hopes. He said there were 30 sessions of cricket ahead of Wellington this season and if they continued to pursue small goals rather than larger ones they could hope to succeed in the long run.

Nevertheless, a win in this match would give Wellington a pleasing buffer on its opponents with two matches to play and they will be energised by that prospect over the next two days.

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