A timely captain's century by Northern Districts' Robbie Hart revived his side's fortunes against Otago in the State Championship match at Carisbrook in Dunedin today.

Hart's century, the second of his 71-match first-class career, made a mockery of the collapses that affected both sides in the match, and he commented afterwards that it had been a great thrill to complete the achievement, especially under the circumstances he found himself in.

The drama started for ND when David Sewell had Mark Bailey and Scott Styris out from consecutive balls after only one run had been added to the overnight score of 69/1, which was 146 runs short of Otago's first innings total.

The Marshall twins, James and Hamish were then at the crease with Hamish avoiding the hat-trick and they added another 40 runs before the mini-collapse when four wickets fell for 13 runs, leaving Hart batting with the tail in a bid to restore some respectability to the situation.

They were 123/7 when he and Graham Aldridge set about a stand that finally provided 64 runs for the ND cause.

But when Aldridge was out, Bruce Martin had a record-breaking 96-run ninth-wicket stand for ND against Otago. They rubbed out the 85 scored by Brendon Bracewell and Peter Neutze at Gisborne's Harry Barker Reserve in 1989/90.

Martin scored 45 runs and when he was out debut player Ian Butler helped Hart add 20 runs for the last wicket. Hart was on 91 when Butler joined him and Butler scored nine in which time Hart reached 102 not out, scored from 157 minutes and in 205 minutes.

ND had the first innings points and a lead of 88 runs. Interestingly, even freakishly, the only two Otago bowlers to take wickets, Sewell and Evan Marshall, both took five wickets for 79 runs, the both bowled four maidens and Sewell bowled 27 overs and Marshall 26.

Brendon McCullum gave Otago another good start when attacking to score 41 from 37 balls and in an opening stand of 63, Otago was well on the way to wiping out the deficit.

However, an untimely loss of three wickets for five runs just before stumps saw Otago slump to 100/4, a lead of only 12 runs with six wickets left. Key batsmen Chris Gaffaney and Andrew Hore were out for 0 and four respectively, leaving Craig Cumming needing to find a solid partner to try and build a solid position for Otago to put the pressure back on ND.

Styris did the damage for ND by claiming two wickets for four runs from six overs. His first victim was Robbie Lawson who was caught behind for 37 and then he trapped Gaffaney leg before wicket.

© CricInfo