With the ball not coming on, stroke play, particularly off the front foot, was difficult, and for this reason, Hampshire's chase was not quite a foregone conclusion. But in tossing away their last three wickets in nine balls, Warwickshire committed the cardinal sin of being dismissed with as many as 27 balls to spare. The two runouts were needless.

Their decent start - 69 for one from 16 overs - therefore proved to be a false harbinger. But at this point a frustrated Brian Lara was lbw playing across a straight one, and within the next six overs, three more wickets had fallen. Nick Knight's dismissal proved all important - in trying to hit over the top, he was caught at mid-off.

Peter Hartley proved highly effective on this surface, nagging away with his arrow straight, short-of-a-length medium pace. Shaun Udal also bowled well, as well as running out Graeme Welch with a pinpoint throw.

A crowd approaching 7,000 was smaller than for the Lancashire floodlit game here two weeks ago (8,500). The inaugural match under lights here drew 16,000 last year.