Middlesex captain Eoin Morgan admitted his players had been beaten by the better side following their Vitality Blast T20 loss at Somerset on Sunday.

Tom Barber (3-37) struck three times in one over to reduce the hosts to 29-3, but half-centuries from Peter Trego (60) and skipper Lewis Gregory (62) saw them recover to post a challenging 229-6.

Middlesex lost Max Holden to the fourth ball of their reply, before a run had been scored, and slipped to 50-4 before rain held up their run chase.

Stevie Eskinazi hit 55 off 32 balls as they chased a revised target of 213 before coming up short on 174-6 and Morgan said: “After Tom Barber took three wickets in an over we really had them pegged back. From then on you have to take your hat off to the way they batted.

“We were a bit off with the execution of our bowling. If we had been chasing around 200 it might have been a different game, but they got 25 or so too many runs.

“To lose our two main strike bowlers in the warm-up and being without Dawid Malan because of a niggle was difficult, but these things happen in county cricket, with all the travelling involved, and there are no excuses.

“We were beaten by a better side. It’s an important week for us coming up, with a couple of days for training and then three games in four days. The group is very open and a couple of victories can change things for us.”

Middlesex are due to return to Lord’s to host Sussex on Thursday (6.15pm), then visit Surrey the following night.