They say in football “The table never lies!” and thus it was in the One Day Cup. Two teams – Blaze and Hampshire – finished the regular season a country mile ahead of everyone else – the gap between 2nd placed Hampshire and Surrey in 3rd ended up being a massive 16 points – with Blaze just edging ahead of Hampshire on the final day. After Hampshire underlied that gap by thrashing Surrey in the eliminator, those same two teams contested the final, with Blaze winning off the very last delivery.

Emma Jones, whose move to the Blaze this season followed years at Surrey where her name had tended to be followed by the phrase “is injured again”,  held her nerve under extreme pressure to score 34 off 25, including 27 of the Blaze’s last 31 runs, to get them over the line. Earlier, Georgia Elwiss (64) and Tammy Beaumont (74) had dominated the middle overs but couldn’t quite finish the job, leaving those who came after them quite a bit to do.

The required rate was just over 6 when Elwiss was caught on the run by Georgia Adams, and it continued to climb until Blaze needed 29 off 18 balls, with 6 wickets down. Jones had been joined by Kirstie Gordon coming in at 7; and while it isn’t quite fair to call Gordon a tail-ender, she isn’t really even a bowling allrounder either – more a bowler who knows which end of the bat is which. Thus this was not the 10-wicket walk in the park the Blast final had been – it became a test of character, but it was one which Blaze were equal to, as the nerves took their toll instead on Hampshire, who went to pieces in the field, dropping so many catches that I lost count.

A few years ago, I ran a 10k and was rather narked to be beaten by a guy whose strategy was to run a “k”, walk a “k”, run a “k”, walk a “k” – overtaking me several times in the process, including in the final straight! Hampshire’s innings felt a lot like that – there were the sprints led by Ella McCaughan in the second half of the powerplay, and Freya Kemp between 25 and 30 overs; but there were also the periods where they struggled to make progress – a nervous start from Maia Bouchier, and a lumbering period when Georgia Adams was trying to work her way out of the rut around the 20-over mark. Ultimately these slower phases cost Hampshire dearly – another 10 or 15 runs on the board would obviously have made all the difference in a game which went down to the wire.

One Day Cup Bowling Metrics

Credit to Blaze’s bowlers, who did what they have done all season – throughout the competition they’ve had the best Strike Rate; the measiliest Economy; and the lowest boundary percentage. Their bowling strengths have allowed them to carry a slightly weaker batting lineup, and the results are in – batters might win you matches, but bowlers win you tournaments. Today’s triumph sealed the “Treble” of T20 Blast, T20 Cup and One Day Cup for a team that, in their “Loughborough Lightning” incarnation, were such a byword for underachievement that they were the only side in the Regionals Era to suffer being disbanded and rebooted following the 2022 season.

Remarkably they achieved this not by buying in new star players, but by taking the ones they had in the Lightning Era – the Bryces, Kirstie Gordon, and Lucy Higham (4 wickets today), and building a team around them which worked so efficiently as a unit that even losing the Scotland trio for the duration of the World Cup this summer couldn’t stop their march to glory. As for Nat Sciver-Brunt and Amy Jones, who both theoretically play for the Blaze… who needs ’em? The Blaze managed a treble just fine without them; and if that isn’t “trebles all round” I don’t know what is?