The oft-repeated fact that permeates through every staging of the men’s Vitality Blast competition in England and Wales is that no side has ever successfully defended the trophy.

It is certainly the case that many counties have lifted it more than once in each of the 22 years that a winner has been crowned; two sides - Hampshire and Leicestershire - have done so on a joint-record three occasions.

The quirk is one that is often used to sum up the unpredictability and the ‘on-the-day’ nature of T20 cricket; that is, you can compile a team capable of winning multiple tournaments, but you can never predict exactly what will happen when it comes down to it.

That, however, refers to the men’s game, and The Blaze, as defending champions and in their second successive T20 showpiece, will be on the charge to make sure that such a quirk does not extend to the women’s game.

They will do so by means of taking on Bears in the 12:30pm eliminator when Finals Day takes place at the Kia Oval on Sunday (27 July), before the winner meets Surrey from 4:30pm.

The Blaze and Bears are in the position of fighting it out in the eliminator by virtue of having finished second and third, respectively, in the group phase, both with eight wins from 14 games.

It could be seen as rather poetic that those two sides will face off to commence the competition’s culmination, given that they went head-to-head in each’s opening game back in May at Trent Bridge.

What the tough-to-call fixture could also be seen as is expected, with the small margin - six points - between the duo borne out by the fact that in that opening game, neither side claimed the spoils, and a thrilling tie was played out.

Utterly unperturbed, though, The Blaze proceeded on a winning run of five matches, with only a total washout at home to Somerset preventing them from making it six in a row.

The first of those came against Lancashire Thunder at Old Trafford, as Georgia Elwiss ended May with back-to-back fifties, while Kathryn Bryce made a crucial 49 not out to add to her 60 in the opener.

Essex were comprehensively outplayed in the next outing, as Bryce the elder was again unbeaten for 51, and this time also demonstrated her prowess with the ball, claiming a miserly 2/11 from 3.5 overs.

While the Somerset rained-out affair prevented The Blaze from continuing their winning run, they did remain unbeaten, and following that, pulled off perhaps their most defining week of all.

The regionalisation of the men’s group stage would prevent a team from ever making round-trips to Surrey and Durham in the same week.

Not so for the national women’s competition, and such was the schedule, that The Blaze were tasked with a journey to Chester-le-Street just 48 hours after a similar trip to the Kia Oval.

Perhaps, then, the journeys made what unfolded on those respective fields even more impressive, as Kirstie Gordon’s side first downed eventual table-toppers Surrey, before seeing Durham overhauled in a record-breaking run chase.

Nat Sciver-Brunt returned for a solitary outing to bolster an already-strong side and catalyse another win over Lancashire on a baking hot day.

While a subsequent defeat to Bears at Edgbaston brought the first half of the group stage to a conclusion, all traces of that were swept away with further wins over Hampshire and Essex.

The latter, in particular, which Gordon described as the side’s best bowling performance of the tournament, was the one that sealed the spot at Finals Day.

Having faced Bears in a dress rehearsal of Sunday’s eliminator earlier this week in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, and come out with a 47-run win, The Blaze will hope for more of the same.

At the grandeur of the Kia Oval, with the Sky television cameras in attendance and a home favourite to upset, they will surely relish the challenge.

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