Billy Taylor will play against Sussex for the first time since leaving for his home county when Hampshire attempt to keep their Twenty20 Cup hopes alive at Hove tomorrow night.

Winchester-born Taylor spent five seasons with Sussex after being rejected by Hampshire as a teenager, but will be playing under the Hove floodlights for the first time in the Twenty20 Cup.

Taylor was not a part of the Sussex Sharks squad for last year's inaugural competition. He did win a medal for his efforts during Sussex's championship winning campaign but, despite playing at Hove for half a decade, he insists that it will not feel like a homecoming.

Taylor: "I love it at Hampshire. I feel more at home here than I ever did at Sussex," said the 27-year-old former Bitterne Park schoolboy, who took career-best figures of 5 for 73 in just his third championship match, against Essex last month.

"This is my home and where I always wanted to be. I obviously know a lot of people at Sussex. I've played there several times so won't feel uncomfortable at all - but it will definitely feel like an away game."

Taylor's first experiences of Twenty20 cricket have not been happy ones. Four successive defeats, including two against the Southern Electric Premier League, was not the start that he or Hampshire had hoped for.

And after two losses in 24 hours against Essex and Surrey, Taylor and his Hampshire teammates need to win against Sussex to keep their Twenty 20 hopes alive. The portents are good. Ironically, Hampshire's only Twenty20 win was against the Sussex Sharks in last year's floodlit Sky-televised curtain raiser at the Rose Bowl. Since then Hampshire have suffered eight successive defeats - and a ninth tomorrow night will deny them a place in the quarter-finals for a second time.

Taylor added: "We need to win all three games and have to be able to adapt at any stage. You're pretty much under the cosh a bit as a bowler as you're put under pressure from ball one

"Sussex have got a lot of very aggressive players, obviously there's Chris Adams (pictured left) and they have two good openers but as long as we do our bit we shouldn't have to worry about them too much."

Hampshire have added Lawrence Prittipaul and Will Kendall to the squad that lost to Essex and Surrey last weekend.

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