Warwickshire Women Head Coach, Ali Maiden, remains optimistic the Bears can turn their fortunes around despite falling to a seven-wicket defeat against Somerset in the second game of the 2026 Vitality Blast.
The Bears posted 166 for nine at Edgbaston Stadium, with Somerset reaching the total three down thanks to a 33 ball 58 from Sophie Luff and an unbeaten 60 from Anika Learoyd.
Maiden admits it was a frustrating day at The People’s Home of Cricket for his side, with both bat and ball.
“I think we were possibly a few under par with the bat, but we weren’t far away,” he said.
“We just didn’t have a big innings in there, so were a few short but I think we could have potentially done something with that score.
“But we just didn’t bowl well enough in the powerplay and dropping chances, a catch off a no ball, those things hurt you. It was a little bit sloppy.”
Highlights on the day for the Bears came from Meg Austin who top scored with 41 from 29 balls, with Australian Georgia Redmayne scoring a classy 30.
The Bears are currently missing key players with Davina Perrin out through injury, and Issy Wong and Charis Pavely on England duty, but Maiden refused to use that as an excuse, and is targeting their next fixture on Wednesday – at Edgbaston against The Blaze – as an opportunity to respond.
“We are missing some key players but that’s not an excuse,” he added. “The people who go out on the pitch are still good enough to do the job.
“We are depleted from our strongest team, but I still think we can compete with every team in the competition if we play our best cricket.
“We are not doing that at the minute so we need to sort that out, shake ourselves off and come back and do it properly next time.”
The Bears take on The Blaze at Edgbaston on Wednesday 27 May, starting at 2:30pm.