The Blaze secured a domestic treble by edging a last-ball thriller with Hampshire to win the Metro Bank One Day Cup women’s competition.
The Trent Bridge-based side had already lifted the Vitality Blast and Vitality T20 County Cup but were forced to dig deep after needing 17 from the last two overs and then two off the final ball.
Emma Jones was the hero with an unbeaten 34 from 25 balls and scored the winning runs – after Tammy Beaumont and Georgia Elwiss had scored half-centuries in the chase of 252.
Earlier, Lucy Higham had taken 4-49 to help restrict Hampshire – who were also losing finalists in 2025 – to 251, with Ella McCaughan and Freya Kemp whacking fifties in vein.
The Blaze won the toss and, through the miserliness of Grace Ballinger and Charley Phillips, only allowed 11 runs in the first five overs.
But Hampshire’s opening pair of the super-in-form Maia Bouchier and McCaughan slowly began to turn the tide in their direction with an 84-run stand.
McCaughan confidently pinged the ball around for her first fifty since June.
Bouchier, who was dropped on a duck, could not make it three centuries in a row when she holed out to long-on before Georgia Adams slapped straight to mid-off shortly afterwards – both to Higham.
The hosts kicked back as McCaughan and Kemp dominated the middle overs with a 67-run stand and were 166-2 in the 32nd over. But The Blaze used their final nous to pull things back.
Higham added wickets three and four of the afternoon by having Kemp stumped and Naomi Dattani caught brilliantly by Kirstie Gordon at mid-on.
The spinner has taken 14 wickets in eight matches since her return from The Hundred – with this 4-49, her third four-for in that period.
Pacer Phillips dismissed Rhianna Southby, Abi Norgrove and Amanda-Jade Wellington in three overs in a row, as Hampshire slumped and could only reach 251.
In response, Sarah Bryce and Beaumont made mincemeat of the bowlers for 15 overs, as they strode towards the target.
The pair put on 95 with relative ease, and then Wellington spun things by seeing off both Bryce sisters in an over – Sarah was caught at deep square before Kathryn was superbly caught at slip.
Beaumont, with the help of Elwiss, kept things ticking, although the former England opener lived a charmed life – she was dropped three times and also survived a stumping chance.
Her luck ran out, having scored her fifth half-century of the campaign, when she was lbw to Wellington – sparking three wickets to fall in 26 balls.
And with 30 still needed, Gordon was caught. It meant there was 17 required from the last two overs, but Jones took the sting out of things.
A ridiculous reverse pull and a straight drive both went to the boundary, and despite a run out with the third ball, Jones took her side to victory with a swept four off the final ball of a nerve-filled match.


