Emma Jones Secures Treble for The Blaze in Dramatic Finish
Emma Jones cracked the final ball to the rope to complete The Blaze’s trophy treble and rip up Hampshire’s One-Day Cup dream in a heart-stopping finish at the Utilita Bowl.
Needing two from the last delivery of the chase, Jones – 34 not out from 25 balls – rocked back and pulled Daisy Gibb to the boundary, sealing a three-trophy season and silencing a home crowd that had dared to believe the game had swung their way.
Beaumont and Elwiss set the stage
For most of the afternoon, The Blaze looked in complete control of their pursuit of 252.
Tammy Beaumont, as so often, set the tone. She anchored the innings with 74, steering the chase with calm authority and punishing anything loose. Georgia Elwiss matched her composure with 64, the pair turning what might have been a tricky target into something that resembled a procession.
At that stage, The Blaze’s double-winning season – already boasting the T20 Blast and County Cup – seemed destined to grow into a treble without too much fuss.
Then the game flipped.
Hampshire’s spin surge
Hampshire’s spinners dragged the final back from the brink.
Amanda-Jade Wellington ripped through the middle order with 3-36, changing the mood in a spell. Bex Tyson backed her up with 2-46, and suddenly the scoreboard tightened, the noise rose, and nerves crept in.
Four wickets tumbled for just 29 runs. What had been a stroll became a scrap. The Blaze, once cruising, found themselves needing 30 from the final three overs, the pressure now very real, the treble suddenly in doubt.
Hampshire sensed it. The fielders closed in, the bowlers took their time, and every dot ball felt heavier than the last.
Jones holds her nerve
Jones refused to blink.
She picked gaps, ran hard, and chose her moments. Boundaries came just often enough to keep the equation within reach, but the tension never really left. Hampshire kept clawing, stretching the contest right to the edge.
By the time Gibb marked out her run for the final ball, The Blaze still needed two. One mistake and the game was gone. One clean strike and history belonged to them.
Jones chose the latter. A short ball, a decisive pull, and the ball raced away. No need to run. No need to look back.
The Blaze players poured onto the field, the treble secured in the most dramatic fashion possible.
More heartbreak for Hampshire
For Hampshire, it was a brutal sense of déjà vu.
Defeated in last year’s final by Lancashire, they watched another visiting side celebrate on their turf, another trophy slip away in front of their own supporters.
They had dragged themselves back into a contest that looked lost, their spinners almost engineering one of the great One-Day Cup heists. Instead, they were left with the same hollow feeling on home soil, beaten at the last by a single, ruthless stroke.
The Blaze leave with three trophies and a season that will sit in their history for a long time. Hampshire leave with the memory of a fightback that fell one ball short – and the question of how many more chances like this they will get.
