Middlesex captain Dawid Malan admitted his side let themselves down in the field in their Vitality Blast T20 loss to Hampshire on Thursday night.

AB de Villiers hit an unbeaten 52 as Middlesex made 153-5, but half-centuries from James Vince (66 not out) and Aneurin Donald (51) led the hosts to an eight-wicket win with nine balls to spare.

And Malan said: "We were happy with our score, we thought it was a good score, as after the new ball it got tough to bat on - even AB struggled initially.

"We let ourselves down in the field. We didn't execute our plans properly and we dropped some catches which set the tone.

"You don't mind losing to a better team on the day when they have massively outplayed you, but we did what we needed to do but were sloppy. We have enough runs to defend." Defeat left Middlesex in sixth place in the south group with one game to go, away at Somerset on Friday.

They are one of four teams on 13 points and Malan says their plan is obvious.

He added: "we have to rock up to Taunton and win and then if we do qualify win the next three. It is that simple; win four games in a row.

"It just shows that when you have a guy who can win you games of cricket that makes the difference. AB put us in a position that we were probably struggling to get to.

"It was disappointing we missed him for those games and it is good to have him back."