Women’s Vitality Blast: Surrey qualify, Durham and Bears win

Surrey secured their place at T20 Blast Finals Day as they defended 132 to beat The Blaze.

Elsewhere, Bears took a huge step towards reaching 27 July’s showpiece at The Oval with victory over Somerset, while Durham kept their slim hopes of qualifying alive by beating and eliminating Hampshire.

Group leaders Surrey could only muster 132-9 in their 20 overs, restricted by Sarah Glenn’s 3-20.

They looked set for a bigger score at 91-2 in the 14th over, but then collapsed to 99-6 and lost momentum.

Their total proved to be enough despite opening bowler Alice Monaghan having to be removed from the attack in the first over after sending down two full tosses over waist height.

The rest of the bowling attack were miserly and, despite Kathryn Bryce’s unbeaten 55, The Blaze fell short on 122-5.

Bears moved above The Blaze into second with a 22-run win against bottom side Somerset.

Sterre Kalis’ half-century led Bears to 149-8 at Taunton, Mollie Robbins starring for the hosts with 4-29.

Somerset, who have now won just one of their 11 games, were never really in the chase as they fell to 62-6 at the halfway point.

Some late resilience from Amanda Jade-Wellington (33) and Chloe Skelton (23) added respectability to their score as they finished on 127-9.

At Chester-le-Street Phoebe Turner took 3-17 as Hampshire were restricted to 103-7.

Durham were wobbling on 49-4 before Emily Windsor hit an unbeaten 36 off 23 balls to help the home side to 104-5.

The top four sides go through to Finals Day, with the next round of games taking place on Sunday.