James Harris refused to write off Middlesex’s T20 Blast hopes despite a fourth defeat in four games at the hands of Hampshire at Old Merchant Taylors’ today.

The Panthers were crushed by 47 runs after the visitors racked up 198-2 batting first – a total Middlesex never really threatened to challenge despite 40 in 21 balls from Irish International Paul Stirling.

Defeat leaves the tenants of Lord’s still propping up the rest in the South group.

However, Welsh pace-man Harris whose three overs cost 25 in the face of Hampshire’s batting heroics, insists, while there is little margin for error from hereon in, Middlesex can still make the knockout stages of cricket’s most flamboyant format.

He said: “We probably need eight wins to qualify, but that is by no means impossible.

“It is not an ideal scenario to be in, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility if you win two or three in a row from here.

“It is not the start we were after of course, but we can still turn this around.

“T20 is a big game of confidence and momentum and if we win a good game at the Oval on Friday against Surrey as we are going to plan to do and we build from there and get on a run who knows.”

Harris admitted James Vince’s fearsome display of hitting in a power-play which saw Hampshire hoist 79-0 was the key to the latest defeat.

However, he insists such are the small margins in T20 cricket the result could have fallen differently for the hosts.

He said: “To be fair to them Hampshire came out and whacked us to all parts to start off with and when James Vince comes out and plays as we know he can do he can be very hard to stop. His 68 off 38 was probably the deciding factor.

“After they got away from us in the power-play to keep them under 200 overall was a really good effort and on a reasonably smallish ground in parts we thought 199 was gettable.

“We gave ourselves a good platform in the power-play and then just lost too many wickets in clusters which cost us in the end.

“It is frustrating because it is just little things and sometimes margins can be so fine. If Vince does not get off to quite such a flyer and hits one of those balls a bit more up in the air to a fielder it completely changes the game.”

Despite the stats stacking up against them, Harris claims Middlesex have the ammunition to be competitive in the remainder of the tournament.

He added: “It’s annoying. We have a good team for this competition and we have done some really good things, we just have been able to put it all together and this was another of those days really.”