Emma Jones Seals Treble Victory for The Blaze

The Blaze walked into the Utilita Bowl already carrying two trophies. They walked out with a treble – and a story that will be replayed every time this team is mentioned.

Two needed from the final ball. One delivery to decide a season. Emma Jones, 34 not out from 25 balls, staring down Daisy Gibb with Hampshire’s fielders ringed on the rope and the home crowd clinging to hope.

Gibb ran in. Jones rocked back. A clean pull, threaded through the leg-side boundary. Game. Cup. Treble.

The Blaze’s players scattered in all directions, sprinting, screaming, disbelieving and yet somehow not surprised. This is what serial winners look like: the T20 Blast already secured, the County Cup already in the bag, and now the One-Day Cup added in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.

For much of the chase of 252, it hadn’t looked like drama at all. It looked like a procession.

Tammy Beaumont, as so often, set the tone. Her 74 anchored the innings, all control and timing, picking off gaps and draining the tension from a Hampshire attack desperate for early inroads. Georgia Elwiss joined her and matched the tempo with 64, the pair building what seemed a match-winning platform.

At one stage, The Blaze appeared to be strolling. The target was shrinking, the rate under control, and Hampshire’s shoulders began to sag.

Then the game flipped.

Amanda-Jade Wellington gripped the ball and, with it, the contest. Her 3-36 dragged Hampshire back from the brink, the leg-spinner ripping through the middle order and forcing doubts where there had been none. Bex Tyson backed her up with 2-46, and suddenly a serene chase turned into a scramble.

Four wickets fell for 29 runs. The noise rose. The Blaze, who had looked unflappable all season, were now staring at the scoreboard: 30 needed from the final three overs. Hampshire’s spinners had turned a coronation into a knife-edge.

This is where champions either blink or bite down.

Jones chose the latter. She refused to panic, picking her moments, running hard, turning ones into twos, then cashing in when Gibb and company missed their lengths. Every boundary felt like a punch to Hampshire’s midriff, every scampered run a reminder that The Blaze were not about to let a treble slip away.

Hampshire, though, would not go quietly. On their own ground, still scarred from losing last year’s final to Lancashire, they threw everything at the closing overs. Fields were tweaked ball by ball, captains and bowlers in constant conversation, every delivery a mini-event.

It all came down to that final ball. Two needed. Scores, history, heartbreak, glory – all balanced on one swing.

Jones didn’t swipe wildly. She chose her shot, picked her area, and pulled The Blaze into the record books.

For Hampshire, it was another brutal ending on home soil, a second consecutive One-Day Cup final lost at the Utilita Bowl, this time with the trophy snatched away at the very last moment. For The Blaze, it was the perfect exclamation mark on a season of dominance, sealed not with a stroll, but with steel under the fiercest pressure.