Hampshire Hawks' first Twenty20 Cup campaign ended with a fourth straight defeat against favourites Surrey Lions at The Rose Bowl last night.

For a while, it looked as if Hampshire might produce one of the the shocks of the tournament so far but Surrey maintained their 100 per cent record in the competition, winning by 19 runs.

Victory was complete when Ed Giddins, the former Surrey bowler, was put out of his misery by Tim Murtagh with the last ball of the match. An unlilkely 20 runs were needed off the last four balls but Giddins failed to test the scorers before Murtagh, the nephew of ex-Hampshire player Andy, had his old teammate caught at mid wicket.

Until then Hampshrie were always in with a chance thanks to a much improved performance in the field.

For once it was the opposition who had to experience a Rose Bowl batting collapse after an opening partnership of 75 in nine overs ended when Ally Brown was bowled by Dimitri Mascarenhas for a 26-ball 33.

It was not just any opposition batting line-up either. Surrey's galaxy of batting stars didn't include Graham Thorpe but Mark Ramprakash and Adam Hollioake were among the quintet that departed in the space of six overs.

Scott Newman, Brown's opening partner, watched on helplessly at the non- striker's end as James Hamblin and Lawrie Prittipaul ripped through Surrey's middle-order.

Prittipaul was outstanding, taking the prize wickets of Ramprakash and Holli-oake after gaining confidence from an opening over that had cost just two runs.

Figures of 2-17 would have been even better had he not bowled two wides in his last over but he and Hamblin's medium pace left Surrey reeling on 123-6 in the 17th. Then Wasim Akram returned to the attack in typically devastating style.

Wasim sent a buzz around the 6,500 crowd when he took the wickets of Newman and ex-Pakistan teammate Saqlain Mushtaq in successive balls.

Newman's middle stump was sent cartwheeling by a Wasim yorker and then Mascarenhas held on to a quite brilliant catch at backward square leg while on the run from deep mid-wicket.

That set up the hat-trick ball, which Martin Bicknell bottom-edged past his leg stump. Giddins limited the visitors to just six runs in the last over and had Murtagh caught at mid-wicket, the eighth Surrey wicket to go for 46 runs in 10 overs.

It left Surrey, who won the toss, with the lowest total from a side batting first in the three Rose Bowl Twenty20 games.

Hampshire were hardly at fault in the field other than at first slip in the fourth over, when Derek Kenway got both hands to the ball but put down Brown when the Surrey opener edged Alan Mullally, having made 13.

The benefit of hindsight tells Hampshire that they were too cautious in reply.

John Crawley opened in place of Kenway alongside Hamblin, who was trapped leg before by the first ball of the innings from Bicknell.

Simon Katich, Hampshire's star man in the Twenty20, then came to the crease but neither he nor Crawley provide the explosive hitting that was needed to put pressure on Surrey.

When Crawley was out to a brillaint catch from Paul Sampson, who took a left-handed diving effort off his own bowling in the 11th over, the required run-rate had crept up to nine an over.

Then Wasim was caught at backward point by Saqlain before Kenway raised hopes with 27 off just 18 balls, his innings including Hampshire's only six as he lifted Saqlain over the mid-wicket boundary in the 16th. But he was comprehensively bowled by the first ball of the next over - and Will Kendall and Katich soon followed.

Hampshire needed 40 runs to win from 24 balls at the beginning of Hollioake's second over but Kenway, Kendall and Katich were out within the space of six balls.

Prittipaul nicked Bicknell in the Sur-rey seamer's first over back and then Nic Pothas and Alan Mullally became Hollioake's fourth and fifth victims as Hampshire lost their last seven wickets for 20 runs in the space of four overs.

Hampshire are now preparing to go from one cricketing extreme to another.

Gloucestershire are the next opponents in a county championship match at The Rose Bowl which starts on Friday. Shaun Udal is expected to play despite missing yesterday's action because of a shoulder injury.