MI London had the lights turned out on their hopes of claiming a fourth straight title despite beating bottom-placed Birmingham Phoenix in a nip-and-tuck final group match.

As the Edgbaston crowd were treated to a solar eclipse, the visitors knew they needed to win by at least 59 runs to take third position from SunRisers Leeds and qualify for the play-off on their home patch after Phoenix won a crucial toss and elected to field.

A total of 157 for 6 meant they would progress if they could restrict Phoenix to 98 and three wickets in the powerplay put a spring in their step, Sikandar Raza clean bowling Joe Clarke and Richard Gleeson dismissing Mitchell Owen and Laurie Evans with consecutive deliveries to pull clear as the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 14 victims.

However, a solid partnership between Joe Weatherley and Sean Dickson steadied the ship and a Tom Curran wide took Phoenix to 99 and ended MI London’s slim hopes.

Dickson (23 from 17) fell lbw to Sam Curran, who then had Weatherley (42 from 31) caught in the deep as the hosts lost momentum but Jordan Thompson (23* from 13) and Rehan Ahmed (23 from 11) took them close before Trent Boult held his nerve at the death, nailing his yorkers to seal a two-run victory.

Earlier, Will Jacks had made a positive start for MI London before falling to Chris Wood after slicing to deep point. James Vince looked in good touch and Nicholas Pooran announced his arrival by dispatching Tom Helm for 10 runs in two deliveries, but Helm came back to bowl Vince (22 off 12) with a back-of-the-hand slowie.

Rehan then put the brakes on by deceiving Sam Curran with a googly and conceded just three runs from his first 10 deliveries, including six consecutive dots.

Thompson took the key wicket of Pooran (36 from 21) when the Trinidadian holed out to long-off before Jason Roy (26 off 21) became Rehan’s second victim. Curiously, boasting figures of 2 for 7 from 15 balls, the leg-spinner wasn’t called upon to complete his quota.

Raza (17 from 13), Ollie Sykes (23* off 14) on debut and Tom Curran (17* off 9) played useful cameos but MI London’s total never looked sufficient to produce the miracle they needed.

With the reigning champions eliminated from the competition, SunRisers Leeds will now play Manchester Super Giants on Friday evening at the Kia Oval, with the prize of a Lord’s final against Trent Rockets at stake.

Gleeson, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: “To win five games and not qualify when two teams have done the same as us is disappointing, but that shows the strength of the competition and you’ve got to be on top of your game all the way through – 30, 40, 50 runs can make a big difference.”