Nic Pothas reckons Chris Adams should have been back in the Sussex dressing room long before he struck the winning runs in yesterday's three-run C&G Trophy defeat.

Pothas, who took on an unfamiliar opening role in the absence of Derek Kenway, believed that he had caught Adams off the bowling of Alan Mullally soon after the Sussex skipper had reached his fifty.

He said: "It was a little more than a nick and it cost us the game but it's just one of those things.

"Players make mistakes, they drop catches - and umpires make mistakes too, such is life."

Pothas added: "You don't expect to lose when 27 are needed from two overs and Wasim Akram has the ball but that's cricket. At the moment it seems like the coin is rolling and keeps falling on the wrong side.

"We've just got to keep doing 95 per cent of the work well and wait for things to turn, we've got to be positive.

"It's a competition less to aim at but it gives us a bit of a rest so we can concentrate on others.

"Arsenal fell at the final hurdle (in the Premiership) because they've been in the FA Cup and it's the same in cricket."

Simon Katich said: "We felt we had enough runs. We didn't have any set plan when we went out to bat but at the 20-over mark we thought 210 would be enough.

"You have to give the opposition some credit and Chris Adams and Mark Davis played very well."

Will Kendall will captain a young Hampshire side in the three-day game against Oxford UCCE which starts in The Parks tomorrow.

Former Oxford University captain Kendall will skipper a Hampshire side including left-arm spinner Charlie van Der Gucht, who plays his first first team game since battling back from the career-threatening injuries he suffered after a collision with a London taxi in July 2001.

Trialists Mark Thorburn and James Bruce are in contention for first class debuts.

Hampshire 12: Hamblin, Kenway, Kendall, Morris, Prittipaul, Mascarenhas, Udal, Brunnschweiler, Van Der Gucht, Thorburn, Bruce, Tremlett.