Wellington showed great composure under pressure to deny Otago a long overdue win in a nail-biting finish to their State Shield match at Alexandra today.

Otago has suffered some close losses to Wellington in recent times but it seemed that this time they would come out on top.

Wellington had different ideas, and the advantage of knowing how to handle a tight situation.

Earlier, Otago had asked Wellington to bat first, and the northerners made a sound start courtesy of some attacking play from Chris Nevin. He scored 42 off 57 balls as Wellington reached 79 in the 21st over before Nevin was out to Warren McSkimming's bowling.

But the experienced Wellington top order kept the pressure on with Matthew Bell scoring 57, albeit off 116 balls which was not the sort of pace he would have been wanting to score at. When Bell was out in the 40th over, there was a chance for Wellington to really kick on from their position of 163 for three wickets.

And while Wellington did reach 233, scoring at nearly seven an over through the last 10, they would have been disappointed not to have scored more. As it was, it took a timely piece of batting from Matthew Walker who scored 37 not out off 22 balls to get the total to its final position.

James McMillan and Shayne O'Connor came in for some treatment from the batsmen. O'Connor finishing with one for 54 and McMillan two for 51 from their 10 overs while McSkimming took two for 45 from his 10. The most economical of the Otago bowlers proved to be Jeff Wilson who took one for 32 from his 10.

Andrew Hore provided a blast to Otago's chase when scoring 15 off 11 balls but it needed a more sustained assault to give the side the perfect start. But the side were well placed with Craig Cumming in good touch in scoring 33 off 53 balls and seeing the score to 105 when he was the second wicket to fall in the 21st over.

By the 30th over, Mohammad Wasim had played a steadying hand scoring 70 off 94 balls before he was trapped leg before wicket by James Franklin.

With four overs to play, Otago, with wickets in hand should have got home with time to spare. They were 209/4, needing another 25 needed to win.

But some tight bowling from the Wellingtonians pegged back the difference between the sides.

Four runs came off the 46th over bowled by left-arm slow bowler Mark Jefferson. Then five came off the 47th over bowled by Walker. Jefferson only conceded four off the 48th and amazingly only two runs came off the 49th bowled by Walker. He completed his 10 overs and finished with one for 45.

Ash Turner was especially troublesome for the batsmen and he was entrusted with the last over.

Ten runs were needed but Marcel McKenzie and McSkimming could do no better than a leg bye and two singles off the first three balls. When the fourth ball was not scored off, Otago needed a miracle and Wellington were not about to concede them one.

Turner showed good composure and ended his nine overs with two for 35, and Wellington had come through again, to claim the win by two runs.

© CricInfo