HAMPSHIRE are targeting back-to-back Royal London One-Day Cup wins this weekend after being well beaten by Kent last night.

Despite an outstanding start courtesy of Michael Carberry on his return to Canterbury, Hampshire were beaten by five wickets with seven overs to spare.

Carberry, who left Kent a decade ago, got Hampshire off to a flier with 61 off 50 balls in an opening stand of 80 with Jimmy Adams (47).

Hampshire lost the toss but Carberry bossed the strike, pulling sixes off the bowling of Mitch Claydon and former teammate Matt Coles (4-0-36-0), who was soon taken out of the firing line.

It was Carberry’s downfall to a miscued pull against Darren Stevens to mid-on - having plundered 48 of his runs in boundaries - that led to Hampshire’s gradual demise.

Tredwell had Adam Wheater (13) caught in the deep and Stevens pegged back the leg stump of James Vince after the Hampshire skipper edged an attempted push drive.

Left-arm spinner Fabian Cowdrey (3-32) had Joe Gatting (11) caught at ‘cow corner’, while Adams was caught low down by Coles at deep mid-wicket.

The self-inflicted run-outs of Liam Dawson (26) and Gareth Berg (18) exposed the tail to Claydon, whose late burst accounted for Yasir Arafat and Fidel Edwards as Hampshire succumbed to 233 all out with 13 balls of their innings still remaining.

Having witnessed Hampshire’s frenetic start, the reply was all the more measured as Joe Denly (78) and Daniel Bell-Drummond (80no) put on 131 from Kent’s first 24 overs.

It came as something of a shock when Denly clipped a return catch to Edwards (10-0-47-3).

Sam Northeast and Sam Billings fell cheaply to Mason Crane (10-0-70-2) and Cowdrey to Edwards. But Bell-Drummond’s assured innings, together with cameos from Stevens (21) and the ubiquitous Alex Blake (34no) eased Kent to their target.

Hampshire director of cricket Giles White said: “We didn’t adapt to the wicket, which helped the slower bowlers and we didn’t help ourselves with the runs outs.

“We needed 275 at least to be competitive. But one win out of two is not a train smash and we go again on Saturday.”

Hampshire have four One-Day Cup games in the next five days. They host Middlesex tomorrow before taking on Glamorgan at Cardiff on Sunday.

Essex visit the Ageas Bowl on Tuesday and Hampshire play the sixth of their eight group games at Warwickshire on Wednesday.