The Blaze recovered from a mid-innings wobble to post a commendable first-innings total against Western Storm at the UptonSteel County Ground, before play was abandoned just after the way point, giving both sides two points.

England captain Heather Knight made an unbeaten five, as her side responded to 209/9 - of which Nadine de Klerk scored 43, and Georgie Boyce 34 - but the showers gave way to rain, curtailing her return to domestic action with Storm 23/0.

She will return to the international fold for the forthcoming Ashes series, which begins with a Test match at Trent Bridge on June 22, preceded by a red-ball match between England and Australia A at Derby a week earlier.

Today’s abandonment meant both The Blaze and Storm have suffered two no-results in their first five matches in the women’s regional 50-over competition, although The Blaze have won all three completed matches to lead the early season table.

The Blaze made an unsteady start after being put in, losing leading-scorer Tammy Beaumont in the third over and opening partner Marie Kelly in the fourth, each contributing only a single. 

The third-wicket pairing of Boyce and Kathryn Bryce repaired the damage by adding 51 for the second wicket, helped by a generous number of wides, but after a half-hour stoppage for rain lost Bryce to a catch at slip off the medium pace of Mollie Robbins.

Sarah Bryce helped Boyce keep the scoreboard moving but from 93/3 in the 22nd, The Blaze lost three wickets in as many overs to slip to 99/6.

Boyce was unlucky, jamming the bat down on a yorker-length delivery from Alex Griffiths only for the ball to somehow squirm back on to the stumps. Then Sarah Glenn feathered a catch behind off Skelton’s off-spin, and Bryce dragged one on to hand Griffiths a second success.

The Blaze looked in danger of going down cheaply at 110 for seven when Lucy Higham chopped straight to backward point but a combination of De Klerk’s quality and a strong showing from the tail almost doubled the total in the remaining 23 overs.

Sophie Munro punched a valuable 24 off 40 balls including a pulled six off Filer and after De Klerk had been bowled attempting to slog-sweep Gibson, skipper Kirstie Gordon and Grace Ballinger added 21 off the last 21 balls to take the total beyond 200.