Joe Weatherley’s high-quality 63 not out wasn’t enough for Hampshire Hawks to defend their Vitality Blast crown as they bowed out in the semi-final to Essex.

Batter Weatherley exhorted great control with his third half-century of the season as the Hawks reached 170 for seven, with cameos of 29 and 22 from Ben McDermott and Benny Howell.

Essex were given a revised 12 over target of 115 after rain which they chased down with three balls to spare to win by five wickets.

With rain around, the Hawks were stuck in, with McDermott recovering from the back spasms that kept him out of the quarter-final victory over Worcestershire Rapids in place of Aneurin Donald.

That ailment showed no sign during a three-over blast from the Australian – as he smashed 29 off 12 balls, which included the first legal delivery being clipped to the midwicket boundary and a flat six over mid-off which should have come with a decapitation warning for the front row of the crowd.

James Vince started off with back-to-back fours but after putting on 39 runs in the first three overs, the opening pair fell in quick succession – McDermott caught swinging a slower ball to deep square and Vince pinging to mid-off.

Essex put on a squeeze with no over conceding more than 10 runs until the 16th over, with runs hard earned which meant batters occasionally forced things and lost their wicket.

Tom Prest was the first such victim as an attempted slog sweep was given out lbw on review, Liam Dawson was caught skying to cover, James Fuller strong-armed to long off and Ross Whiteley was caught at short third.

But Weatherley found a way to rotate the strike and set up a big finale – with partnerships of 21, 32 and 20 with Dawson, Fuller and Whiteley.

The right-hander – who scored 71 in the semi-final two years ago – only scored one boundary in his first 19 balls, but crucially only one dot ball came in that time.

His third fifty in the Blast came in 34 balls – brought up with a deft guide through point – with just three dots coming in his whole 39-ball innings.

He was rewarded by being able to skip a six over long-on and slog sweep another to end up 63 not out.

Howell had assisted the death over striking – which saw the duo club 40 runs off the last three overs to post 170 for seven – with 22 off 11 before falling to the last ball of the innings.

Chris Wood needed just three balls to pick up Adam Rossington, to give the Hawks a dream start. Rossington pulled forcefully and was exceptionally caught by a flying Weatherley on the fine leg boundary.

Wood and John Turner kept it tight for the 17 balls before the forecasted rain fell and forced the players off for an hour with the score freezing on 19 for one.

When they returned the DLS calculator spat out a new calculation of a 12-over innings with the Eagles requiring 115, which meant 96 more runs in 55 balls.

Essex began strongly on the return but Fuller hit back with two wickets in three balls.

Firstly, Michael Pepper’s big swing flew off the outside edge to Turner at deep third before dangerman Dan Lawrence edged behind.

Turner followed Fuller’s attacking by pinning a reviewing Paul Walter plumb in front to make it three wickets in six balls.

Daniel Sams struck some lusty blows in a 45-run stand with Matt Critchley, before he slapped Nathan Ellis to Whiteley to deep point to leave Essex needing 20 off the last two overs.

That dipped down to 13 from the last, which Ellis couldn’t defend as Critchley and Simon Harmer both hit sixes to send the Eagles to the final to face either Somerset or Surrey.