Trent Rockets Women’s captain Ash Gardner hopes to put on a performance for the Trent Bridge crowd in the remaining three home games, after her side were narrowly defeated by London Spirit.

Spirit secured a five-wicket win with three balls to spare, as Marie Kelly  and Nadine de Klerk used their knowledge of conditions at the venue to their advantage, with both having enjoyed stints at Trent Bridge with The Blaze.

Gardner enjoyed notable success in Nottingham with Australia, with her eight-fer securing success in the 2023 Women’s Ashes Test, and she hailed the crowd for their impact once more.

“It’s awesome to see lots of fans come in on a Sunday afternoon,” she said.

“They turn out and support their teams here, so it’s great to come and play in front of them,

“We’ve got three more games at home, so hopefully we can focus on putting right what we got wrong and turn it around”

Gardner top-scored for the Rockets with 34 from 22 balls, before taking two wickets in the run-chase, and she felt the pitch provided plenty of opportunity for run-scoring.

“When batters get in, it becomes an easy ground to bat on,” she said.

“We had a really good platform today and a chance to cash in, but weren’t quite able to explode like you want in this format – and that’s cricket sometimes.

“We didn’t adapt quite as quickly as we’d have liked, but there are lots of learnings to take from it.”

Gardner’s opposite number Charlie Dean felt the knowledge of Kelly, along with The Blaze stablemates Amy Jones and Josie Groves, was key to their success.

“Our top three have been given the role to take the game on, and they did that today which was really pleasing,” she said.

“Marie’s got a lot of experience, at this ground, so she used that really well, and she hit really great options and made it look easier out there.

“We spoke yesterday about what it is like to play here, and it probably felt like a benefit for us to have those domestic girls that know the conditions really well.”