Chris Adams won a high-octane duel with Shane Warne yesterday to inspire Sussex to a hugely satisfying Pro40 League win.

Adams blasted five of his six fours and two sixes off the legendary leg-spinner in a vintage cameo of 70 from just 49 balls.

There was still work to do when Adams drilled Shaun Udal's quicker ball back to the bowler in the 32nd over.

But Andrew Hodd held the lower order together with a composed 31, hitting the winning run off Sean Ervine in the penultimate over.

It was Sussex's second successive two-wicket win in the competition and, like last Monday's breathless triumph over Gloucestershire, the 4,000 crowd got their money's worth.

James Kirtley had helped restrict Hampshire to 260-7 after Warne had won the toss with a sensational second spell which brought him 5-14 in three overs.

And Sussex's reply was launched in spectacular style by Chris Nash and Luke Wright.

For once Wright was happy to play second fiddle as Nash took the attack to Hampshire's seamers, including the seriously quick Daren Powell.

When Nash was third out for 59, made off 56 balls with nine fours and a six, Sussex were 110-3 in the 18th over and decently placed.

But it was the duel between Adams and Warne which had the crowd on the edge of their seats and, as he had done at Arundel in June when he scored a century in the Championship win over Hampshire, Adams came out on top.

He had one reprieve when wicketkeeper Nic Pothas missed a stumping immediately after Adams slog-swept Warne for the first of two sixes.

But it was a brilliant assault on Warne, who had out-foxed Mike Yardy and Carl Hopkinson in his first three overs and looked like having the last laugh.

Instead, Adams found the perfect foil in Hodd who found the gaps to give his captain as much of the strike as possible and ran like a whippet in a stand of 61 in seven overs before taking control of the run chase.

Robin Martin-Jenkins (19) gave him excellent support and the end came when Ervine over-stepped and Hodd took a single off the free hit which followed to see his side home with seven balls to spare.

Hampshire's innings had been dominated by a run-a-ball 108 from left-handed opener Michael Lumb, his first century in one-day cricket.

But Sussex dragged it back well after Lumb and John Crawley had raised Hampshire's 100 off the first ball of the 14th over.

With his seamers disappearing round the park, Adams brought Mushtaq Ahmed into the attack even though there were another five overs of fielding restrictions remaining.

But Mushtaq, Yardy and Nash did their job, conceding 93 in 20 overs between them.

Even Lumb was becalmed. His first 50, which he reached by hitting three successive boundaries off Martin-Jenkins, came off just 33 balls and contained nine fours but the next 50 took him 68 deliveries with only three more boundaries.

Crawley played his part in a first-wicket stand of 147 with 61 off 67 balls (9x4, 1x6) and Ervine threatened to take his side past 300 when he blasted his way to 50 off just 36.

But Kirtley came back and proved yet again why he is regarded as the best death' bowler in the country.

His spell included two wickets in two balls in the last over. Dimitri Mascerenhas, his first victim, was also his 300th in one-day cricket for the county while Lumb toe-ended his slower ball to wide mid on.

It was the seventh time Kirtley had taken five wickets and if he maintains this sort of form Peter Moores will surely give him the opportunity to resurrect his England career at next month's Twenty20 World Cup.