SHANE Watson is determined to finish his stint with Hampshire on a winning note after yesterday's dramatic one-run defeat against Lancashire at the Rose Bowl.

Watson plays his last games of the season for Hampshire in the Twenty20 Cup, starting against the Middlesex Crusaders at the Rose Bowl tomorrow (5.30pm) and against the Kent Spitfires on Thursday, and is intent on leaving on the back of a memorable double.

The 23-year-old deserved to finish on the winning side yesterday, but his 60-ball 54 was not enough to beat Lancashire Lightning at the Rose Bowl as Hampshire slipped to fifth in the totesport league First Division.

Watson needed to hit a four off the last ball of the match - but could only drive Carl Hooper for two to long off as Hampshire suffered their 26th successive limited-overs loss to the Red Rose county.

He said: "I definitely thought we had it, especially as we only needed seven off the last over, and it was very disappoiniting that I couldn't find the boundary off the last ball , as that's something I've been practising all last week.

"I've been trying to hit boundaries in the cover and mid-wicket boundaries where normally there are no fielders, but I couldn't pull it off, I just hit it a little bit too straight."

Watson and wicket-keeper Nic Pothas only needed 18 off the last three overs but Carl Hooper ensured they still needed 17 off the final 12 balls - and Pothas was bowled by the first ball of the final over.

"Lancashire are a very good team but Michael Brown and John Crawley had set it up for us to get us home, it was a great opportunity to beat them," added Watson.

"The way Nic and me were going we should have been able to get the runs but we couldn't find the gaps.

"It was the first time I have faced Carl Hooper, it was a good challenge, he's a very smart bowler as you'd expect him to be.

"But we still backed ourselves to get seven off the last over."

Watson will return to Australia after the Twenty20 double header as Shane Warne will be back for next Sunday's Rose Bowl clash against Northants.

He added: "I'll be very sad to leave, I've had a great time.

"The Twenty20 hasn't been good so far but hopefully I can get a few runs in front of the home crowd."

Watson was out for golden ducks in his first two Twenty20 matches but, like Simon Katich last year, he has shown that it is possible to succeed with the bat at the Rose Bowl - having scored a hundred on his championship debut last month against Somerset.

"I don't think it's as bad as everyone makes out," he admitted.

"It's obviously quite difficult, it's not as flat as Old Trafford or the Oval, but there are different conditions at every ground and you just have to be able to adapt.

"I've been lucky because I haven't got too many balls that have done anything.

"In the championship match I got a couple that jumped and a couple went a bit low, but I played a game in Hobart two years ago where the wicket was a lot worse."

Hampshire will field the same side that played the first three group games for tomorrow's Twenty20 match against Middlesex.

Lawrie Prittipaul is unavailable after suffering an arm injury during the warm-up before Friday's win against the Sussex Sharks.

Hampshire (from): Brown, Clarke, Udal, Crawley, Watson, Lamb, Mascarenhas, Pothas, Tremlett, Taylor, Bruce.

The Southern Daily Echo and Hampshire Cricket have teamed up to offer five pairs of free tickets for Thursday's Twenty20 match against the Kent Spitfires.

It could determine whether Hampshire make it through to the quarter finals and you could be there if you correctly answer the following question:

Who did Hampshire beat to win the Rose Bowl's first-ever Twenty20 match in June 2003?

Please e-mail your replies to echosport@soton-echo.co.uk - please enclose a daytime telephone number - and you must be able to collect your tickets from our head office in Redbridge.