Head Coach Chris Guest was full of praise for his team’s fight over the final four group stage games of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, as The Blaze were ultimately made to wait for other results this weekend to see if they have done enough to qualify for the semi-finals.

Defeat at the hand of the Central Sparks leaves The Blaze in fourth spot on 31 points, with qualification now hingeing on the Southern Vipers beating Sunrisers in Southampton tomorrow.

Despite the result, Guest chose to focus on the positives across the summer, after a tough run of losses at the beginning of the season left the side with a tough ask to qualify when the tournament resumed after The Hundred.

“It’s been an intense few weeks, every game has felt like a must-win and they’ve rolled around thick and fast,” said Guest.

“Obviously you’re constantly looking at what’s happening at other fixtures, so to get to the point of where we were today, with it in our own hands was massive.

“We still go into tomorrow with a chance and need just one result to go our way, so we’ll all be glued to the stream to see how that pans out.”

Defending 166 at Chesterfield, The Blaze were ultimately undone by a couple of fifty-run partnerships from the visiting middle order.

After a brace of tight bowling performances to down the Southern Vipers and Lancashire Thunder since returning to the 50-over format, Guest’s side couldn’t make it a perfect trio at Queen’s Park.

“At the interval I knew we were short, especially after the start we had got being 60/1,” said Guest.

“However there was an element of it being September outgrown cricket in which you never feel like you’re out of the game.

“We would have needed a miraculous bowling effort, which we started when we had them 60/4, but they finished the game strong with two fifty partnerships.”

All eyes now turn to Saturday’s fixture in Southamprtion, with The Blaze hopeful of a victory for Southern Vipers over Sunrisers to secure fourth and a semi-final spot.

“It makes the Saturday a lot more stressful than it could have been but ultimately we can’t control anything right now,” said Guest.

“We’ll see what happens and if it goes our way we’ll have snuck in which will be a fantastic effort after the start of the season.

“Ultimately, the girls have shown a huge amount of effort and resolve to put us in with a chance.”