BEARS Women missed out at the Vitality Blast Finals Day at The Kia Oval.
After beating The Blaze by 20 runs, Bears faced a decider with Surrey.
But they could not halt the home side who won by five wickets.
Bears can take heart that their first season took them so far in the competition, and that bodes well for the future.
Grace Harris’s sparkling 63 from 33 balls led Surrey to victory in the inaugural final.
The Australian all-rounder grabbed hold of the game, striking two sixes and seven fours to provide the platform to win.
Kira Chathli, who watched her heroes at The Oval as a child, scored the winning runs with 20 balls to spare.
Amu Surenkumar and Emily Arlott took two wickets apiece for Bears – but it was not enough.
Earlier, Bears struggled to build partnerships with player of the match from the semi-final, Issy Wong, top scoring with 31 and Laura Harris making a typically ferocious 25 from 11.
Phoebe Franklin was the pick of the Surrey attack with two for 16, while two superb runouts helped to further restrict the Bears.
Meg Austin dispatched the first ball of the innings for four only for Alexa Stonehouse to bowl her with an in-swinger.
Davina Perrin’s miserable day with the bat was completed when she fell for nought, and it was Wong who gave the powerplay momentum with four boundaries and a five from an overthrow.
Stonehouse ended her fun with another ball that hit the stumps and Sterre Kalis was run out by a magnificent throw from the deep by Ryana MacDonald-Gay.
Natasha Wraith played nicely for 23 but she and Surenkumar fell in the space of four balls, the latter to a lightning quick stumping by Kira Chathli off Franklin.
Harris was dropped early on and went on the offensive, twice clearing the ropes. Three other boundaries took the Australian to 25, but going for another big hit off Dani Gregory she found the hands of Franklin in the deep.
Franklin removed the dangerous Emily Arlott too, but Millie Taylor (20 not out) marshalled the tail, leaving Surrey a target of 154.
Surrey’s chase suffered an early setback when Danni Wyatt-Hodge, prolific in the competition, lost the chance to be the leading run-scorer as she holed out in the deep.
Skipper Bryony Smith swept and pulled strongly, but fell to the last ball of the powerplay from Surenkumar and when Wraith whipped off the bails to stump Capsey off Hannah Baker, Surrey were floundering at 42-3.
Three Sophia Dunkley boundaries from Millie Taylor’s opening over raised hopes for the side playing on their home ground and the England international hit Baker back over her head for six in the next.
That was as good as it got for Dunkley who overbalanced trying to hit Surenkumar over the top, Wraith’s fast hands doing the rest.
But Harris took up the baton to play the match-defining innings, driving fours cleanly through cover and mid-off.
Emily Arlott was dispatched to the sightscreen for six and swept for four, but Paige Scholfield perished in the deep trying to imitate the shot to give the bears renewed hope.
But Harris remained to reach 50 at a strike rate of 200, before clubbing Taylor into the seats at midwicket as Surrey scampered home.
Bears batter Kallis was happy with the Birmingham team’s display against Blaze.
She told the Bears’ official website: “We were obviously pleased to go through. It wasn’t ideal playing back-to-back games, but we took it as a positive as we could bring momentum into the next game.”
