In front of a boisterous home crowd Oval Invincibles triumphed in the eliminator of the women’s Hundred, setting up a tantalising final against Southern Brave at Lord’s on Saturday afternoon. But it would be just as accurate to point out that Birmingham Phoenix threw this game away: from a dominant position at the halfway stage of their chase, they were bowled out for 94 to lose by 20 runs, their last eight wickets falling for 28 runs in a flurry of desperate hitting, scrambled tactics and superb fielding. Set 115 to win, Birmingham reached a largely untroubled 66 for two off 49 balls, at which point the game took a sharp tilt. Erin Burns and Amy Jones were dismissed off successive deliveries and, even though the required rate was still only around a run a ball, the lack of big-game experience in their middle order quickly became a problem. The last boundary of their innings came off the 66th ball, after which Oval’s bowlers expertly tightened the screw. Tash Farrant deservedly took the player of the match award. Her four for 10 off 19 balls, claimed with an irresistible mixture of change-ups and slower balls, was the best bowling analysis of the tournament. In addition it was her inspired diving catch at mid-off to dismiss Burns that precipitated Birmingham’s collapse. “We knew if we got a few wickets that we were into the tail,” Farrant said afterwards. “We’ve bowled really well all tournament and that’s paid off today.” But in reality Oval’s win was very much a collective effort, spearheaded by Marizanne Kapp with bat and ball and gilded by some terrific clutch catching by Dane van Niekerk and Alice Capsey off their own bowling. It was Kapp and Capsey who had hewed Oval to a defendable total in the first place. Their partnership of 54 from 44 balls undid some of the damage of a tentative start, and even after Capsey perished with nine balls remaining a late smash from Grace Gibbs lifted Oval to 114 for seven: a little below par but a testing little chase nonetheless. Certainly 114 felt a little light once Jones and Burns got going. The dangerous Eve Jones had feathered a catch behind first ball but her namesake wasted no time in asserting herself, with a classy square drive to get off the mark and a powerful pull for four over midwicket. She stepped across her stumps to sweep the pace of Shabnim Ismail and, with Burns in tow, the pair brought up the 50 partnership in 35 balls. Enter Farrant, whose acrobatic catch to pluck out Burns’s lofted drive will surely be remembered as one of the moments of the tournament. Now 25 and having rebuilt her career after losing her England contract in 2019, Farrant is a smarter and more streetwise cricketer these days, back in the England set-up and with a better idea of how to influence games. After she caught Burns the very next ball she snared Jones with a slower ball to join Kirstie Gordon and Sammy-Jo Johnson as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. There was more to come. As the balls began to run out and Birmingham began to panic, one could sense Oval beginning to turn up the heat. Van Niekerk decided to bowl 10 balls in a row and was rewarded with the wicket of Marie Kelly. Farrant reeled in Gwenan Davies with another slower ball, before returning to mop up the tail. And so to an enthralling final. The Brave have been the best team of the tournament by some distance and will start as strong favourites, particularly with their star-studded batting line-up: Danni Wyatt, Smriti Mandhana, Stafanie Taylor, Sophia Dunkley. They also have an extra four days’ rest in the bank. But after this bold comeback triumph, the Invincibles may just feel they have the momentum.