With one round to play in the national domestic T20 competition, the finalists have been confirmed and Auckland will host Canterbury next Sunday in the HRV Cup final.
Runaway leaders Auckland were destined to be part of the showpiece game, but confirmed they would have home-ground advantage when the defending champions made light work of Otago at the University Oval in Dunedin today.
Third-placed Northern Districts hoped Wellington could pull off an upset against Canterbury to give their outside chances of making the final a boost, but the Cantabrians had no trouble accounting for the men from the capital and dealt them their sixth loss of the campaign.
In Dunedin, Otago won the toss and elected to bat and looked on track for a monster-sized total as their top three of Brendon McCullum (35), Hamish Rutherford (24) and Craig Cumming (44) got them off to a brisk start.
But, when Cumming departed in the 16th over the wind was taken from their sails and they lurched from 120-3 to 150-8 from their 20 overs.