Ervine orchestrated Hampshire's innings with a superb century

A superb 118 from Nick Knight was not enough to prevent Hampshire recording an 18-run win in the C&G Trophy final.

Warwickshire were in command at 163-1 after a stand of 122 between Knight and Ian Bell, but an injury to Bell soon led to his downfall and the rate rose.

Man of the match Sean Ervine hit an aggressive 104 in Hampshire's 290, sharing 134 with Nic Pothas (68).

Ervine and Shane Watson fell in the same over and Neil Carter picked up two wickets in the final over to take 5-66.

Carter then gave Warwickshire an electrifying start, pulling Chris Tremlett into the top tier as the first five overs yielded 40.

His 32 from 23 balls allowed Knight and Bell to play sensibly with little need for risky strokes.

Bell played in textbook fashion and with Knight using the reverse sweep to excellent effect, the century partnership came up from 128 balls.

At the end of the 30th over, with Warwickshire in command at 163-1, Bell set off to run and winced as the cramp that had been concerning him in the previous few overs began to take its toll.

The diminutive England batsman collapsed in a heap as he completed two runs to take him to 49, but eventually continued with Carter as his runner.

Knight's brave 118 was not quite enough for Warwickshire

Though his running was taken care of his lack of movement proved decisive when he failed to get on top of a drive and was comfortably caught at mid-off.

With the rate gradually creeping up towards double figures, Knight hit two reverse sweeps to the fence off Shaun Udal, but Andy Bichel, who had been troubled by a knee injury, bowled Jim Troughton through the gate and ousted Trevor Penney in his next over.

Jonathan Trott was run out by a calm under-arm direct hit from Shane Watson and despite a boundary from Knight, the task was 57 from the final five overs and Tremlett then bowled Alex Loudon as he tried to make room.

With 40 needed from three overs, Knight had one last dash against Bichel and could not clear the man on the mid-wicket fence, the canny Australian finishing with 3-57.

England hero Ashley Giles, not accustomed to being on the losing side, hit a searing cover drive for four but he fell to a superb slower ball from Watson.

Even a six-run penalty for bowling the overs too slowly could not thwart Hampshire, with Tremlett yorking Makhaya Ntini in the final over.

The start of the match provided some bizarre entertainment.

South African paceman Ntini, who aborted the opening ball having got to the wicket, then pinned John Crawley on the crease with the first legitimate delivery.

Remarkably there was no appeal, even though replays suggested it would have clipped the leg-stump.

Hampshire completely deserved to win with an intense, professional performance From Paul Have your say on TMS

It was Ntini who caused the early problems, darting the ball back at pace from his trademark wide position at the crease but nipping the occasional one away.

Dougie Brown, by contrast, could not get his line right, and after 15 came from his fourth over he was replaced by Carter.

The innocuous looking left-armer made the breakthrough in the 14th over when Crawley, having mixed some fluent off-side strokes with a couple of fortuitous inside edges, gloved a quicker one that bounced steeply.

Ervine soon had the field spread far and wide, favouring the lofted shot into the leg-side as he reached fifty from 42 balls.

Pothas was content to play second fiddle, but played his part in a superb partnership that set the platform for a huge total.

In an eventful 34th over he took two boundaries in the same Carter over, before he was also defeated by a quicker bouncer and gloved to the keeper in similar fashion to Crawley.

Bell's problems with cramp proved to be a turning point in the final

Pietersen resisted the temptation to launch his Test colleague Giles, but after making five from 10 deliveries he was brilliantly caught by the England spinner diving on the boundary.

It gave Trott the first of three wickets and produced the glare of the season as his eyes bore into Pietersen until the England batsman was back in the pavilion.

Watson was almost stumped first ball off a wide down the leg-side, but he added 25 from 28 balls before he was caught at the second attempt by a juggling Jim Troughton in the deep.

Ervine slammed the next ball to the fence before he was also caught in the outfield, continuing a flurry of wickets that escalated in a frenetic final two overs.

Ntini bowled the penultimate one and Andy Bichel hit three fours, two of them streaky edges.

He lost sight of a full toss and then saw his partner Greg Lamb run out at the bowler's end, the combative Ntini appearing to nudge the batsman before throwing down the stumps.

Carter picked up two wickets to off-side catches in the final over.

Last man Chris Tremlett launched a mammoth six over long-on before being run out from the final ball, Warwickshire relieved to have restricted Hampshire with eight wickets for 84 runs.

But with the Bears middle order unable to support Knight, the total still proved too great.