GRACE Thompson bowled an exemplary over just before it hosed it down to give Durham a dramatic one-run victory by DLS over Hampshire Hawks in the Women’s T20 Blast.

Durham had scored 119 on a slow track, thanks to Suzie Bates’ 34 and Bess Heath’s 29 – with Freya Davies and Bex Tyson each picking up two wickets.

With heavy rain forecast, the race was on to bowl the five overs needed to constitute a match, Maia Bouchier got Hampshire ahead of the rate, but Trudy Johnson made sure the scores level on DLS at the five over mark.

Before Thompson only conceded three runs in the following over before the rain got too heavy and umpires Ant Harris and Julia Jarvis took the players off – with Hawks two runs shy of a winning score.

It handed Durham their first Blast victory and Hawks back-to-back defeats.

Hampshire Hawks head coach Paul Prichard added:  "That was a hard one to take. I thought we bowled and fielded exceptionally well and 120 was a gettable score but the weather had other arrangements for us.

"The plan was to not lose any wickets but unfortunately we lost two and then the rate went up. We saw the rain coming and narrowly failed to get there in the end.

"We tried to get past the mark in the last over but they bowled a good over with some good stops in the ring and that stopped us getting to where we needed to get to.

"There are lots of ifs and buts, but that's cricket. It is a cruel game sometimes and that's what it was today. There is no blame on anyone that is just how cricket goes sometimes."

Durham fast bowler Thompson added: "It is a really good win for us. We've had a couple of unlucky run outs so far so it is nice to get one under the belt.

"It was pretty high pressure towards the end. They needed a couple more runs and thankfully we managed to hold them off.

"I just tried as tightly as I could with my stock ball and try to keep them to the minimum amount of runs. I'm happy I was able to pull it off. Hollie made a big decision to pick me so there was nerves going through me but it was great to do it.

"It was a very slow scoring pitch and a slow outfield so I think our batters did a great job to get the runs they got."

On the same pitch that South Africa played Zimbabwe in preparation for their World Test Championship final, Hawks chose to bowl first – an obvious choice with heavy rain forecasted.

Suzie Bates began with a crushing four, but it didn’t set a precedent for regular boundary hitting as the pitch didn’t offer a great deal of pace.

Durham’s batting was summed by starts, regular wickets, and very little offside play; only 23 of the 119 runs not struck on the onside.

Katherine Fraser was the first of six wickets to fall when she picked up to deep midwicket, with Freya Davies also bowling Emma Marlow to return figures of two for 20.

Bates, the scorer of half the eight fours in the innings in her 34, was the first of two to get stumped off Bex Tyson, with Abi Glen following suit later in the innings.

Hollie Armitage scored 18 before she was bowled by Mary Taylor and Mady Villiers powered to long on.

Bess Heath whacked a six over deep midwicket in a useful unbeaten 29 to take Durham to a challenging score.

Hampshire knew they needed 23 runs if they didn’t lose a wicket in the five overs that were needed to constitute a match.

But Mady Villiers ended Ella McCaughan’s three-match half-century run by getting her to chip to mid-off, before Charli Knott was bowled going back to Katie Levick.

That upped the five over target to 30, which thanks to Bouchier hitting both Villiers and Trudy Johnson for back-to-back fours put the hosts in control.

Hampshire were on exactly 30 at five overs – Johnson ending with two dots – so a tie would have been a result with the rain starting to come down, but it wasn’t enough to end proceedings.

Thompson tied Freya Kemp and Bouchier up to only allow three runs in the sixth over, when five were required to win before the heavens truly opened and there was no argument that no further play was possible.