Nic Pothas admitted Hampshire are using the Twenty20 Cup as a learning curve after a third successive defeat.

The Hawks are still likely to draw capacity crowds for their two remaining home games, against Middlesex tomorrow night and Essex on Sunday.

But Pothas admitted that winning the Friends Provident Trophy and the County Championship are the primary objectives this season.

He said: "There's a lot of cricket to come and we're using this tournament as a launch pad.

"It's not easy to do well in every competition and we aim to present ourselves to Shane Warne ready to challenge for the Pro40 League and be ready for the FP Trophy final and the Championship run-in in the second half of the season."

However, qualification for the Twenty20 Cup quarter finals is still possible, mathematically at least.

The Hawks are bottom of the South Group, while Sussex are now top, but Pothas admitted they were confident of beating their south coast rivals after setting them 104 to win in 13 overs.

He said: "We were more than happy with the total, and were confident of defending it because bowling and fielding has been our strength in all competitions this year.

"After Chris Tremlett's first over it looked very good for us but credit has to go to Sussex for batting extremely well.

"Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up when a side bats well, which is what they did.

"We let ourselves down at Middlesex on Monday but there was not a lot else we could have done tonight."

For full story see today's Daily Echo.