Sky is the limit for Dimi!

Less than a fortnight after taking a hat-trick at Hove to keep Hampshire in the Twenty20 Cup, Mascarenhas hit a match-winning 79 against Kent at Canterbury to maintain his side's faint hopes of winning the totesport National League.

On both occasions the television cameras were rolling, as they were at the Rose Bowl on Monday, when Mascarenhas top scored against Lancashire in the Twenty20.

Are you getting the message, David Graveney?

Mascarenhas, 26, will not take England rejection quietly. If anything, he is playing better than ever since being left out of the ICC Champions Trophy squad.

Last night he was the one shining light in another mediocre batting performance.

His innings of 79 from 93 balls equalled his highest score in the competition (v Worcestershire at Northlands Road five years ago) and was put in context when Kent were bowled out for 124, beaten by 22 runs with 56 balls remaining.

Effectively it kept alive the Hawks' hopes of a winning the National League title in their first season back in the first division.

"If we win all five games, we've got a chance, because they're against other sides challenging for the title," said skipper Shane Warne. "But, without Dimi's runs tonight, we wouldn't have made 80.

"I said to the guys before we went out that this was a must-win game and we showed a lot of character to bounce back from a lean week or so and win after posting 60-70 runs short."

Mascarenhas's partnership of 30 for the final wicket with Billy Taylor was Hampshire's biggest stand of the match and proved to be decisive on a wicket that offered plenty of assistance for the spinners.

The all-rounder arrived at the crease with Hampshire in dire straits at 47 for 5 before pacing another sublime innings to perfection.

Mascarenhas brought up his fifty with the seventh of his ten fours, a straight drive against Andrew Symonds in the 39th over, having hit James Tredwell for the first of his two sixes - on to the marquee at long on - in the previous over.

Then he really cut loose, striking New Zealand pace bowler Ian Butler for a six over the mid-wicket boundary and out of the ground.

Mascarenhas eventually holed out to cover just when a maiden one-day hundred began to look possible, and Hampshire were all out for 146 with 15 balls left of their allocation.

"I was bit disappointed with our batting, I thought 200 was a good score," admitted Warne, who had won the toss.

Hampshire's captain then went on to produce a magical spell for the 6,000 Canterbury crowd and the Sky TV viewers to help his side to a first win in four National League games.

It was an exceptional all-round bowling performance from Hampshire, but Warne's 3 for 24, and Shaun Udal's 2 for 21 proved Kent's undoing.

That was always likely to be the case after Tredwell had extracted significant turn but the spin twins still had to perform at their best to defend Hampshire's low total, and that they did.

Ed Smith got Kent off to a rapid start after being recalled in place of England's Robert Key, stroking three successive boundaries at the beginning of Alan Mullally's fourth over.

But when he was caught at square leg in Mascarenhas's first over, it did not look such an easy game.

Left hander Michael Carberry was caught at first slip in the next over before Warne and Udal began to turn the screw as soon as the fielding restrictions were lifted.

In Warne's first over, the 16th, Clarke took one of the catches of the season at slip to dismiss Andrew Symonds.

Clarke was at full stretch when he caught dangerman Symonds one- handed to avenge his earlier departure.

And two close catches in as many balls in Udal's second over sent Matthew Walker and David Fulton packing.

Left-hander Walker mishit a sweep shot straight to silly mid off, where Michael Brown held on to his second catch, and then Crawley made no mistake with a bat-pad chance.

When Warne added the wickets of Alex Loudon and Niall O'Brien with two beautiful deliveries in his fourth over, Hampshire were strong favourites.

Loudon found the gaps consistently for his 39-ball 34, and was proving a threat before he was bowled round his legs and rookie left hander O'Brien lost his off stump to a Warne leg-break two balls later.

Tredwell, who had been surrounded by close fielders for Udal's hat-trick ball, eked out 19 runs in nine overs with Rob Ferley before Mullally had the former caught behind in his first over back.

After one over from Clarke and another maiden from Warne, Mascarenhas was brought back at the pavilion end.

He and Mullally tightened the noose and Kent's last pair panicked into runs that were never there under the floodlights.

Sensational fielding from Clarke saw Butler run out with a direct hit from backward point, and when the young Australian swooped in the covers to run out Martin Saggers, Hampshire were celebrating their first away win in the National League since the opening game of the season against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

Another under lights against Glamorgan in Cardiff next week, and the Hawks will need four National League wins in August to have a chance of lifting the title.