Maybe if Surrey had picked Saqlain Mushtaq earlier in the Twenty20 Cup they would not be about to bow out of it, but then again, maybe not. Saqlain did his best with three wickets, but Hampshire cruised past Surrey's 175, their best total this season, with an over to spare. Surrey have won one match from five and will probably need to win their last five to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Surrey used to be the masters of the flying start, but Alistair Brown got a golden duck and Surrey crawled to 100 after 14 overs. Mark Ramprakash gradually unfurled to make 60 off 43 balls and Abdul Razzaq smashed five sixes in his Twenty20 best score of 65 off 34 balls. But others choked and when Razzaq was out off the first ball of the last over, from Ian Harvey, they managed one more run.

Hampshire eschewed the need for batsmen to play themselves in and “see it through”. The visiting team lost Harvey to the first ball of the second over, from Pedro Collins, but from the moment Michael Lumb hit the next over, from Chris Jordan, for 20, Hampshire were ahead of the rate.

Each time it looked like they might falter, another rose from their ranks to take up the cudgel. Lumb hammered 45 from 21 balls, but was bowled by Saqlain in the sixth over.

Michael Carberry hit 45 off 33 balls and Hampshire needed only 69 off the last nine overs. Then Chris Schofield, got Surrey back into the game. The leg spinner, the best Twenty20 bowler in the country last season, had been out for more than five weeks with a broken thumb. Ramprakash, who will captain Surrey for another month after Mark Butcher had knee surgery on Monday, did not bowl him until the fourteenth over. Schofield had Carberry stumped and Nic Pothas caught at deep mid-wicket two balls later, as Hampshire stumbled to 128 for five.

Cue Sean Ervine with 46 off 28 balls. Saqlain had him caught at long-off in the eighteenth over, but the game was almost unloseable for Hampshire and besides, Greg Lamb, with 22 off 16, had the cudgel by then.

Scoreboard

Surrey

S A Newman b Taylor 15

A D Brown c Harvey b Hayward 0

*M R Ramprakash c and b Hayward 60

U Afzaal c Benham b Lamb 19

Abdul Razzaq c Ervine b Harvey 65

J N Batty c Carberry b Harvey 4

C J Jordan not out 1

M N W Spriegel not out 0

Extras (w 7, b 4) 11

Total (6 wkts, 20 overs) 175

C P Schofield, P T Collins and Saqlain Mushtaq did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-23, 3-58, 4-148, 5-174, 6-174.

Bowling: Hayward 4-0-41-2; Taylor 4-0-38-1; Riazuddin 4-0-36-0; Harvey 4-0-20-2; Lamb 4-0-36-1.

Hampshire

I J Harvey lbw b Collins 1

M J Lumb b Saqlain 45

M A Carberry st Batty b Schofield 45

C C Benham c Schofield b Saqlain 6

S M Ervine c Brown b Saqlain 46

*N Pothas c Jordan b Schofield 0

G A Lamb not out 22

L A Dawson not out 3

Extras (lb 2, w 3, nb 4) 9

Total (6 wkts, 19 overs) 177

H Riazuddin, BV Taylor and M Hayward did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-57, 3-71, 4-128, 5-128, 6-164.

Bowling: Jordan 2-0-25-0; Collins 3-0-40-1; Razzaq 4-0-28-0; Saqlain 4-0-24-3; Spriegel 3-0-25-0; Schofield 3-0-33-2.

Umpires: M J Harris and B Leadbeater.