FOR James Bruce, this is a season of rare opportunity. For one thing, he has been entrusted with the new ball. For another, he is considerably fitter after a winter building up his strength in Australia. Lively enough to surprise the best batsmen and sufficiently accurate to maintain a rigid line, he took the first four Gloucestershire wickets, three of them in five balls yesterday.

More important still, Bruce gave Hampshire a chance of qualifying for the next stages of the C & G Trophy. He has bowled impressively all season without necessarily running through an upper order, but this was indeed a match-winning performance. His figures, when he took what passes for a sweater in coloured clothing, were 7-3-18-4.

Gloucestershire had needed 222 to win, which came down to 210 off 42 overs as a result of rain. Bruce had Craig Spearman leg-before with his second ball and promptly took the vital wicket of Ian Harvey, bowled aiming to mid-wicket. Chris Taylor went first ball, conceivably beaten by movement off the pitch, and Hamish Marshall was smartly held by Nic Pothas in front of first slip.

The impression is that Bruce can surprise the most experienced batsmen with his pace off the pitch. He brings the ball back into them and is said no longer to be disconcerted when occasionally treated without respect. If a fast bowler is at his peak between the ages of 28 and 32, then at 26 he is progressing nicely. He has taken 26 wickets in all competitions this season. “I was aware there was a big chance for me this season and I made sure I became fitter,” Bruce said.

There was no coming back from that, although there might well have been had Gloucestershire possessed their triumphant limited-overs side of three or four years ago. When Phillip Weston and Alex Gidman were out, they were 56 for six. Mark Hardinges swung Shaun Udal for sixes off successive balls in striking 60 from 42 balls, but that was about all.

One-day matches at the Rose Bowl are often formulaic: the side batting first makes around 230 and the result is not determined until the last three overs or so. This one was different, even though Hampshire were out for 221. They began with Michael Carberry striking 31 from 30 balls, but some excellent catching, not least by Taylor at backward point, meant that their first five wickets went for 124.

John Crawley contributed 44, but the innings did not gain any momentum until Greg Lamb and Dimitri Mascarenhas added 76 in 12 overs. This was Lamb’s first half-century of the season, one in which he managed only two fours but it was worth a great deal in the context of a low-scoring match on a pitch far from conducive to run-making. There was little of note from the tail not least because another fine catch, this by Marshall just inside the boundary rope at the northern end of the ground, accounted for Udal.

Although this was another rain-affected match, it was not so disrupted as Hampshire’s fixture against Somerset at Taunton last week, which went ahead, briefly, after an original abandonment. This important victory yesterday was their third in six matches in a competition that they are naturally keen to win in successive years.