Liam Dawson scored his second fifty in consecutive matches before a miserly bowling return sent Hampshire Hawks to a fourth straight victory in the Vitality Blast men’s competition.

Dawson followed his 76 against Surrey with an innings-saving 52 to give Hampshire a defendable 173 for six.

The left-arm spinner then tied the Sussex Sharks middle-order in knots with three for 20, with Chris Wood and James Fuller picking up two wickets.

Teenager Manny Lumsden rounded things off to also take two as Hampshire moved four points clear at the summit of the South Group, whereas Sussex remain bottom with a solitary win and three losses in a row.

Everything Tymal Mills touched in the early stages turned to gold, as Sussex started both innings on top.

He won the toss, got every fielding adjustment perfect and got Hawks’ dangerman James Vince out in the second over.

Mills went for just 13 runs in his two powerplay overs, but that was eclipsed by James Coles’ unmovable darts – which went for seven runs and yorked Toby Albert.

Tom Price and Danny Briggs backed those overs up by dismissing Tom Prest and Joe Weatherley – the former to a stunning caught and bowled – as Sussex suppressed the hosts to 42 for four after seven overs.

Dawson’s elevation to No.5 against Surrey saw him strike his first T20 fifty for three years. Another promotion saw identical results.

He swung his first ball for four into the legside and barely gave the bowlers a break from then on, as he and Tristan Stubbs recalibrated the innings.

The pair put on 66 to boss the middle-overs, with Dawson reaching back-to-back fifties.

They had both gone by the end of the 17th over, Dawson to give Mills his second, but Fuller and Hilton Cartwright lifted the Hawks to 173 with 37 runs in the final three overs.

The momentum stayed with the batters when the Sharks started their innings as Daniel Hughes pumped Fuller for 17 and then Harrison Ward took Scott Currie for the same two overs later.

Sussex clearly won the powerplay again, thumping 67, but a wicket with the last ball of the restrictions – Ward leg before to Fuller – started to send the momentum back towards Hampshire.

Where Fuller’s first 11 balls had been dispatched for 37, his next seven returned two for three – as he picked up Tom Alsop on his middle overs return.

Hughes and James Coles fell, caught off Manny Lumsden and wonderfully caught and bowled by Dawson, in successive balls to continue the Hawks taking control.

That turned to a dictatorship of the middle when Jack Leaning was stumped off Dawson, and John Simpson was caught and bowled by Currie in quick-fire scalps.

Hampshire rounded things off in style as Wood had Price nicking off, Mills bowled to give Dawson his third before Lumsden castled Henry Crocombe to complete the 29-run win.