The Blaze slipped to a 23-run defeat to Hampshire, but head coach Craig Cumming knows his side have to “bounce back quickly” ahead of their clash with Somerset on Friday.

The visitors were comfortably beaten in Southampton, despite a strong performance with the ball, which saw Charli Knott and Grace Ballinger pick up three wickets each.

Marie Kelly then gave the Blaze a flying start with the bat, smashing 33 from 20 balls, before a flurry of wickets through the middle overs derailed the chase.

Cumming admitted it was “more of the same” as familiar problems resurfaced in a third successive defeat.

He continued, “It mirrored the last two games before this, where, bowling-wise, they got off to a good powerplay, and then we pulled it back. It was a good total on a surface that was slow, but one we were really confident chasing. And when you're 50-odd for none at one stage in the powerplay, and you need six runs an over, you think you're under control.

“But to come up as short as we did shows that we were completely outplayed in that period, which is a continuation of the last two games, so that's three in a row. It's a real trend, so we've got to find our solutions really quickly to go again on Friday.”

Having won the toss, Hampshire got off to a great start with the bat, but the Blaze fought their way back into the match, containing the hosts in the middle overs, before striking regularly at the death.

“We expect that. That's what we're good at. We've got highly skilled bowlers, and we were able to do well in those key moments and pull them back. It was a good surface, but if you bowled well, you can make it tough.

“We pulled back through that period, but at the end of the day they've just got to score more runs than we do, and they did by a considerable margin. Whatever we kept them to, we should have been chasing with a lot more ease.”

Kelly impressed again with a quickfire knock at the top of the order, but after she fell, the Blaze were unable to capitalise on the platform.

“We wanted to make use of the powerplay and the new ball coming on, and she got us off to a brilliant start. I was more than happy with the way she got out. If there's no final leg, she just lapped for four; do it again, you're on top. But even then, we were in a really strong position.

“They were always going to bring the spin on, but we were aware of that. We just didn't play with enough smarts and enough skill to be able to counter it, which is really disappointing.”

The Blaze face Somerset on Friday in a must-win clash to keep their Finals Day hopes alive, and Cumming wants to see more composure from his side

“Something's not quite clicking for us in that middle phase, and it's been like that for a bit of the season. Our powerplay has been our strength, but we’ve just got to look internally, got to look at ourselves.

“It's a tough game. It's a game that puts you under pressure. It makes you feel tight and makes you feel like your heart's pumping through your chest. But we've got to be able to deal with that. We dealt with it before. Now we've got no other option but to deal with it on Friday. We’ve got to bounce back really quickly.”