Durham into Blast final with upset win over Hants

Durham upset the form book to beat Hampshire Hawks by four wickets and reach the final of the Vitality Women's Blast at the Oval as Heather Graham played a match-winning hand with the bat.

The Hawks were favourites to set up a showdown with The Blaze having finished top of the table and nine points clear of their fourth-placed opponents, but were overshadowed by a superb all-round performance from Durham.

After being asked to bat, Hampshire seemed to be building towards a challenging total at 49-1 in the sixth over, but the loss of five wickets for 40 runs, including that of captain Georgia Adams (15) set the tone as Sophia Turner (3-21) and Katy Levick (1-18) chipped away.

Naomi Dattani was the mainstay of the Hampshire innings, scoring an unbeaten 28 from 22 balls, with Ella McCaughan (23) the only other batter to get into the 20s, but a total of 129-8 always looked well within reach of Durham.

That proved to be the case with skipper Hollie Armitage (23) and Mady Villiers (25) sharing a 52-run partnership for the opening wicket, but when both were dismissed in the space of seven deliveries the nerves began to appear in the north-east side's batting line-up.

Bess Heath (8), Emily Windsor (1) and Mia Rogers (8) all fell to reduce them to 93-5, leaving Hampshire sensing there was an opportunity to exert enough pressure to get out of trouble.

Having watched helpless from the non-striker's end, Graham, who had already returned economical bowling figures of 1-25, took centre stage.

The Australian all-rounder manoeuvred the ball intelligently into gaps and struck two fours in her 35 off 32 balls.

When Amanda-Jade Wellington forced a false stroke from Graham in skying a catch straight to Dattani at mid-off there were still 15 runs required from 11 deliveries.

But any lingering Hampshire hopes were ended as Grace Thompson (17 not out) and Turner (7 not out) scrambled Durham over the line with four balls remaining to finish on 131-6.

Durham will head into the final against The Blaze (18:45 BST) full of confidence off the back of two victories against their Nottingham-based opponents in the group stage.