PRO40 DIVISION ONE, The Rose Bowl:
Hampshire 185-7 beat Glouces 184-8 by three wickets (Hants 2pts)

Griffiths, from the Isle of Wight, was playing only his fourth one-day game

Young Hampshire paceman David Griffiths earned his side a third straight Pro40 victory as they beat Gloucestershire by three wickets with 17 balls to spare.

Disciplined bowling saw Hampshire restrict the visitors to 184-8 in their day-night clash at The Rose Bowl, Griffiths taking a one-day best 4-29.

But, despite the loss of in-form opener Michael Lumb, Hampshire always looked favourites and got there on 185-7.

James Adams led the way with 79, before Dimitri Mascarenhas saw his side home.

The Friends Provident Trophy winners did suffer a late flurry of wickets.

But captain Dimitri Mascarenhas hit four fours and a straight six as his 29 in 20 balls steadied the ship and saw his side safely into harbour.

Earlier, Griffiths got the home side off to a perfect start, removing opener Kadeer Ali and visiting skipper Alex Gidman before the visitors had reached 30.

Some dogged resistance followed from William Porterfield. But Hampshire's spin twins Liam Dawson and Imran Tahir wrestled the initiative back.

Dawson trapped Porterfield for 47 from 62 balls before Tahir took the wickets of Hamish Marshall and David Brown to leave the Gladiators in trouble at 132-5.

A quickfire 44 from Chris Taylor saw Gloucestershire approach a competitive score. But the irrepressible Griffiths' work was not yet complete as he returned to remove both Taylor and Steve Adshead.

Hampshire's reply got off to a terrible start with the loss of talismanic opener Lumb. But Adams and James Vince combined to take the score on to 56 before Vince's mistimed pull shot flew straight to midwicket.

Adams and Sean Ervine then doubled the score. But, after Ervine was caught behind, Chris Benham and Dawson both went cheaply. And when Adams was bowled by Ian Saxelby, there were still 17 needed.

But Mascarenhas helped move his side up to third in the table, just a point behind Division One leaders Somerset.

Both sides now face a return to County Championship action on Thursday (27 August, 1100 BST).

Gloucestershire go to Lord's to face Middlesex, while Hampshire take on Somerset at The Rose Bowl before having to straight to Worcester on Bank Holiday Monday (31 August, 1345 BST) for their next Pro40 date.

Hampshire skipper Dimitri Mascarenhas told BBC Solent:

"Hopefully we can win the rest and, if we do that, we're in with a chance of winning the title.

"The wicket turned a little bit, so it sort of went in our favour. They came out and bowled really well and it was never easy.

"David Griffiths has worked really hard on his fitness and strength. He's come back in the side and done brilliantly.

"We thought we'd give him a game. And what a really good spell of bowling. He's definitely benefited from playing Championship cricket."

Gloucestershire director of cricket John Bracewell told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I learnt that we've got some young talent which is very promising, some quite good athletes.

"I think David Payne showed that he has some very good athleticism.

"Ian Saxelby I think led the attack really well in the absence of our two senior players and bearing in mind he's only 19.

"I think the energy in the field was better than it had been in any of the other Pro40 games so that sort of refreshed young look gave us a bit of a lift."

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