The Hampshire Hawks crashed to a third successive one-day defeat in their first match of the season without the injured Shane Warne.

Liam Dawson, aged 17yrs and 179 days, became Hampshire's youngest debutant for 50 years and hit a classy 32 as the Hawks posted 225-9 against the Northamptonshire Steelbacks.

But Hampshire, who were led by Nic Pothas in warne's absence, had no answer to David Sales and Lance Klusener's unbroken sixth-wicket stand. Sales and Klusener put on 67 in just 40 balls to lead the home side, who had won the toss, to a first Pro40 win of the season, by five wickets and with an over to spare.

With ten overs remaining, the game was in the balance with Northants needing 72 with six wickets in hand.

However, Sales hit an unbeaten 92 (70 balls) and Klusener 36 not out (23 balls) as the bottom-of the-table Steelbacks won with ease.

Stephen Peters (54) put on 79 in 15 overs for the third wicket with Sales against a Hawks attack for whom Billy Taylor made a first appearance since the Twenty20 Cup in the absence of Warne, Chris Tremlett and Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Defending a below-par total without that trio, and with a short boundary, was always likely to be a tough ask and so it proved when Klusener joined Steelbacks captain Sales at the crease in the 33rd over.

Sales and Klusener are as brutal a pair as they come at the death and Sean Ervine took the brunt of their assault.

Dawson, Hampshire's youngest debutant since 1957, showed what all the fuss is about with a composed 32 from 31 balls.

There were no sign of nerves as Dawson clipped his first ball for two through mid-wicket against Richard Logan.

He nudged and scampered the singles intelligently and gave further glimpses of his quality with his four boundaries.

The amount of time batsmen appear to have at the crease is a clear indicator of their quality and Dawson had plenty.

He swept fellow slow left-armer Nicky Boje for the first of his four fours, crashed Jason Brown for another through long-on and then reverse swept Boje to the fence.

Dawson's fourth four was the most audacious of the lot. He stepped across his stumps and chipped to the rope at backward square leg at the beginning of David Lucas's second spell.

Sadly, he failed to repeat the shot next ball, sending a steepling catch to the edge of the 30-yard circle, where Northants wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien held on.

Dawson put on 64 in just 9.1 overs for the sixth wicket with Michael Carberry, whose unbeaten 75 (90 balls) held the Hawks innings together after fellow left handers Michael Lumb and Sean Ervine had departed in successive overs from Lucas.

Lumb was dropped at first slip on four but had looked in fine touch, lofting Lucas for a straight six in his 16-ball 22 before he was caught via an inside edge.

Sean Ervine slapped a full toss straight to Boje at cover but John Crawley (48) and Carberry laid the foundations with a 60-run third-wicket stand in 13 overs.

Enter Richard Logan, who only took four wickets in seven one-day appearances during his two season with Hampshire but finished with 4-47 yesterday (his best figures since an eight-wicket Championship match haul for Nottinghamshire at the Rose Bowl more than three years ago).

Crawley became Logan's first victim, sending an attempted upper cut to third man. Jimmy Adams pulled Logan for six before chipping his former teammate to mid-wicket for an 18-ball 17.

Shaun Udal holed out to deep mid-wicket in Logan's penultimate over and Bruce lost his leg stump to his former Hampshire fast-bowling rival.

However, Logan missed an easy run out following David Wigley's throw from long-off as Carberry ran a second off the last ball of the innings. Fortunately for him, it did not prove critical.