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

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

After being asked to bat, Hampshire looked to be marching towards a challenging total of 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) wore down.

Naomi Dattani was the mainstay of Hampshire’s innings, scoring an unbeaten 28 off 22 balls, with Ella McCaughan (23) the only other batsman to reach 20, but a total of 129-8 always seemed within Durham’s reach.

That turned out to be the case with captain 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, nerves began to creep into the northeast 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 feeling there was a chance to apply enough pressure to get out of trouble.