Laura Wolvaardt was made for days like these. With Southern Brave chasing a low-ish total, she scored one of the coolest, calmest 50s of her career to get her side home. The scorecard says Brave won with just 6 balls to spare, but it was possibly the longest 6 balls in history – as WinHer reflects, the result was absolutely never in doubt.

Having been put into bat, London Spirit didn’t get off to a great start – Kira Chathli, who veers from the sublime to the sordid like a character in one of the 19th Century Russian novels she likes to read, holed out in the first set to one of the worst shots I’ve ever seen. Spirit then limped to 24-1 at the end of the powerplay, with neither Cordelia Griffith nor Georgia Redmayne playing with much… well… “spirit”.

When Redmayne – such a critical cog in the Spirit machine that won this competition 12 months ago – was dismissed to a stunning low catch from Mady Villiers off her own bowling, things quickly went from bad to worse as Grace Harris delivered a classic “Six and Out” – slogging just (just!) over Maia Bouchier at long on for a maximum, and then sending the very next ball in exactly the same direction but a foot or two shorter, allowing Bouchier to make the catch at the second time of asking.

Griffith continued to stutter, with her Strike Rate falling back into the low 70s at one stage; but crucially she hung in there long enough to remind Mady Villiers that fielding might be easy but sometimes bowling isn’t – Griffith taking her for 19 runs in a set, including two sixes. This one set threatened to turn the tide in favour of the Spirit, giving them a platform to push on towards 150; but they blew it big-time. Dani Gibson first ran out Charli Knott; then after (just) failing to run out Issy Wong, ran herself out for 9.

This exposed the lack of power in Spirit’s tail, as they scored just 22 runs in the final 25-ball phase, with the only boundary coming by sheer luck, after a fortunate deflection off non-striker Sarah Glenn wrong-footed Maia Bouchier on the long on boundary.

Needing 126, Brave lost Danni Wyatt-Hodge early after Issy Wong somehow persuaded Charlie Dean to review an LBW that everybody in the stadium except Wong (including, crucially, the umpire) thought was going down leg, but proved to be just straightening enough to get the decision – a millimeter of difference would have been umpire’s call, and Wyatt would have survived.

Wyatt-Hodge was Brave’s top run-scorer in the tournament coming into this match; but today they didn’t need her. Wolvaardt and Bouchier took control of the game, pushing just hard enough to stay ahead of the rate whilst keeping their wickets in hand. Bouchier did eventually lose her concentration, possibly demonstrating why Emma Lamb is going to the World Cup and she isn’t, as she was caught on the ring.

But Wolvaardt stayed cool, even as Brave’s run-rate dropped unnervingly towards the end, with 4 consecutive sets between balls 70 and 90 going for 3 or less. Others would have been panicked into going for the big hit, but Wolvaardt just rotated the strike in the knowledge that was all she needed to do; before Sophie Devine finished things off to maintain Brave’s unbeaten season and catapult them straight into the final back here at Lord’s next weekend.

Who they will meet there remains of course to be decided. London Spirit could yet defend their title – they finished third in the group stages last year and went on to win it – but they will need to be much more convincing in their final match against Invincibles, as well as hoping other results go their way, if they are to repeat the trick.

Southern Brave crushed Oval Invincibles by 89 runs – the biggest margin in the history of The Hundred – via the ultimate team performance: no 50s or 100s; no 4fers or 5fers; just contributions up and down the XI, as the Brave made it 5-from-5 to leave themselves one win away from qualification for the knockout stages. Regardless of what else happens, a win in their next match versus Welsh Fire will guarantee Brave at least 3rd place in the table.

Maia Bouchier and Danni Wyatt-Hodge got Brave’s innings off to a solid enough start, reaching 33-0 after 25 balls, with Bouchier having had the bulk of the strike through that period, facing 17 of those 25 balls and making 21 runs. But it was definitely a platform rather than a big start, little hinting at what was to come.

Brave began to accelerate immediately following the powerplay, with Bouchier hitting a 6 and a 4 off Amanda-Jade Wellington’s first set which went for 13. But her dismissal – holing-out on the midwicket boundary – saw a dip in the trend of their innings which could easily have become a fatal slump, especially after Wyatt-Hodge, who has been Brave’s leading run-scorer this season, decided to charge Phoebe Franklin, presumably guessing that Franklin wouldn’t bowl two slower balls in a row. (She did; Wyatt-Hodge was way too early on her charge down the pitch, and was comprehensively bowled!)

Although neither Laura Wolvaardt (36 – Brave’s top score) nor Sophie Devine (19) really got into 5th gear, they kept pressing as they put on a partnership of 42; before they were dismissed in quick succession – Wolvaardt caught on the ring; and Devine run out after a bit of the “Yes; No; Yes; Nos” with Freya Kemp. Kemp, however, more than made up for it with a rapid 24 off 11 balls as Brave timed their innings perfectly – losing 4 wickets in the final phase, but getting 46 more runs on the board, moving from 115-2 to 161-6 in the final 25 balls.

Interestingly, if this had been a “normal” T20 game, Brave might well have struggled to score many runs off the extra 20 balls – certainly not at the rate they had been going. But for a 100-ball match, it was perfectly timed; and left Invincibles needing a record chase for the win.

To be fair, it was a record chase.. just not the record they’d have had in mind!

We’ve seen a few times already in The Hundred this season that you have to get ahead of the rate if you’re to have any chance in these big chases; but after Sophie Devine removed both Invincibles openers in the space of 4 balls, they could only cough and splutter their way to 17 off the powerplay.

If Invincibles chances were slim after 25 balls, by 50 they were non-existent, after Lauren Bell and Rhianna Southby (who continues to show the value of a specialist wicket-keeper in this competition) combined to have Alice Capsey and Paige Scholfield caught behind off consecutive deliveries; and Invincibles eventually succumbed to the inevitable as their longish tail collapsed to 72 all out.

The result puts Brave back on top of the table, with an enormous Net Run Rate advantage over their rivals; but on the evidence of tonight they won’t need it to qualify directly for the final – they might not have had a stand-out star today, but as a team they look unstoppable.

This week:

• Will form in The Hundred impact on World Cup selections?
• Syd gets cross about the changes to the Blast & One Day Cup
• Why didn’t the ECB release their Ashes review?
• Who is English cricket’s Run-Out Queen?

This week we discuss The Hundred:

• Has it been a success?
• ⁠What changes will the new owners make?
• ⁠London Spirit make a statement at Lords
• ⁠Trent Rockets captaincy

On the CRICKETher Weekly:

• Essex out of the One Day Cup
• England player availability
• The Hundred hits more problems

This week:

• Polly Starkie on the shambles of Tier 2 Blast Finals Day
• Surrey triumph in the Tier 1 Blast – but a good day for Issy Wong
• Sophie Ecclestone’s odd interview with Sky
• England v India Test at Lord’s… but it’s only 4 days

In the end, it was too much to ask the Bears to do it twice – after winning their semi-final, they were well beaten by Surrey in the final of the T20 Blast, in front of a very partisan crowd of home fans at the Oval. The scoreboard repeatedly flashed-up demands to “Cheer for Surrey” and an official crowd of over 5,000 did. Entreaties for Bears fans to do the same fell somewhat flatter.

Despite the return of umpteen England stars, this was a poorer match than the “Zombie Rubber” between these two sides 10 days ago, when Surrey hit 204 and Bears 179 in reply. That day, Kira Chathli was the star, smashing 65 off 31 balls. Relegated to No. 7 below the big England names, she did at least have the satisfaction of striking the winning runs.

But the real star was Grace Harris, who showed why she is the Harris with 50-odd international caps for Australia to sister Laura’s none. Her 63 off 33 balls may have been at a lower Strike Rate (190) than Laura’s 25 off 11 (SR 227) but by going deep Grace ensured that she earned every pretty penny that Surrey paid for her services in this campaign.

Batting first, Bears made the best possible start off the first delivery of the match from Alexa Stonehouse, with Meg Austin showcasing the finest Austin drive to come out of Birmingham since the Austin Allegro. (Don’t @ me – my dad bought one in ’79 – I know it was possibly the worst car of all time!) It was a gorgeous stroke – probably the shot of the day. But Austin was bowled by Stonehouse the very next ball, and from that point you felt the writing was on the wall.

Issy Wong top-scored for Bears for the second time on the day. The difference between her scores versus Blaze (59) and Surrey (31) was basically the difference between the teams, but that isn’t to hold her in any way responsible for the defeat – she did her job across both games, and had arguably the best day of her career.

Laura Harris did plunder Stonehouse for the most expensive over of the day – the 18-run 13th – but although it helped get Bears past the 150 mark which is the… bear minimum these days, it wasn’t enough to trouble Surrey, who have been the team to beat throughout this competition – losing just once in the group stages – and proved the same today.

Every time Bears grabbed a wicket, it must have felt like battling the hydra – cut off a Wyatt-Hodge and a Capsey comes in her stead; cut off a Capsey and a Harris comes in her place. With Surrey batting right down to Alexa Stonehouse at 10, Bears’ only hope was to bowl them out; but on this pitch, that was too much of an ask.

As the final 4 crossed the rope, there was applause from the crowd, and a scramble to get around to the one small part of the ground from which you could see the presentation – the fans who had paid money to come through the gate seemingly ignored in terms of witnessing the raising of the trophy.

But it perhaps tells us something more that by far the biggest cheer of the day came almost an hour later, from the fans that had stayed behind to watch the conclusion of the football on the big screens below the stands, as Chloe Kelly kicked home the winning penalty in the Women’s Euros. The final score: football 1, cricket 0.

There are three sides to being a top cricketer – talent, mentality, and graft – and there have been times in Issy Wong’s career when it has felt like she was all talent, but almost disdainful of mentality, let alone graft.

That was not the Issy Wong we saw in today’s T20 Blast semi-final, as Birmingham Bears beat the Blaze by 2o runs.

Perhaps the most revealing moment was not Wong’s 59 runs at a Strike Rate of 155, or her 4 wickets at an Economy Rate of 4.4, but a chase around the boundary that culminated in a dive to deny what looked like a certain 4. It didn’t take talent or mentality – just graft, to make the yards and cut off the runs. This was a new Issy Wong – one who has perhaps realised that graft might be the boring one, but it is the one you can most easily change – the one that can turn a good cricketer into a history-maker. Just ask Heather Knight.

Wong’s game began early, after Grace Ballinger had bowled Davina Perrin in the second over – Perrin again seeming slightly overawed by the big occasion, giving her wicket away to a skyer on the ring. Wong coming in at 3 always feels more in hope than expectation, though she generally doesn’t hang around either – she’ll swing until she misses, scoring runs until she gets out. But you could sense that there was something slightly different about her demeanor here – a bit more circumspect, but a bit more determined.

With Bears having lost two wickets in the powerplay, Wong led the fightback in a partnership with Sterre Kalis worth 64 runs which gave Bears the platform they needed to push on to a winning score. The job still needed finishing, but the platform largely built by Wong, which took Bears to 98-2 after 12 overs, meant they could afford to lose 6 wickets in the rest of the innings without any change in their momentum.

Having continued to score at 8+ an over, Bears finished on 163-8. It wasn’t a huge score – bearing in mind especially that their final opponents, Surrey, scored over 200 at this ground last week. But it was a few more than the 156 which has been a typical score in the Blast this season; and it gave them something to defend if they bowled well.

Blaze’s batting order is pretty stacked down to Sarah Bryce at 6; but the real threat felt like Tammy Beaumont – if Bears could get Beaumont early, they were in with a shout. Enter (again) Issy Wong. Having started with a wide (her only one of the match) she bowled Beaumont with a beauty through the gate with her third legal delivery. Beaumont had that slightly perplexed look that Mike Gatting made famous after being bowled by Shane Warne’s Ball of the Century; and Bears were pumped.

Wong wasn’t finished though – the very next ball was a fierce bouncer to Scotland captain Kathryn Bryce, which Bryce couldn’t quite sway out of the way of in time, gloving a catch to Nat Wraith behind the stumps.

As with Wong’s contribution with the bat, the job wasn’t done in those two balls – Blaze maintained parity and were even ahead for a period in the early middle phase. Bears still had to work for the win. The key remaining wicket was Georgia Elwiss, who is at her best with her back against the wall grinding down a grindable total. And she could have been the match-winner for Blaze, until a slightly un-Georgia Elwiss moment of madness – trying to force the pace, she charged Georgia Davis and was stumped for 53.

Millie Taylor, whose career has reached escape velocity with Warwickshire this season following her move from Vipers, did more than her share with 3 wickets and a catch, including a lovely off break (turning the other way from her stock ball) to bowl Sarah Glenn through her legs. And then… who else but Issy Wong came back to finish it off at the end – a fine rolling catch from Amu Surenkumar on the boundary giving Bears the win and the chance to face Surrey in the final.

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