DimI Mascarenhas continued his sensational National League season by inspiring the Hampshire Hawks to a tenth win in 11 games with bat and ball.

All rounder Mascarenhas took his haul of wickets in the competition to 29 for the season but it was his economy that did most to restrict the Derbyshire Scorpions to 158-9.

Not since Malcolm Marshall took 1-11 against the same opponents at Derby in 1983 has a Hampshire bowler been so miserly in this competition.

That was in the days when the competition was 40 overs per side and bowlers were restricted to eight each.

Astonishingly, Mascarenhas was in the sixth over of his nine-over spell before he conceded his first runs off the bat.

His wickets were the first two to fall, left-handers Steve Selwood and Michael Di Venuto departing in his first and sixth overs.

That was after John Crawley decided to insert the visitors after winning the toss because of the uncertainty over how a very dry Rose Bowl wicket would play.

Once again, it proved to be the correct decision.

Simon Katich (23 from 24 balls) made a solid start with James Hamblin before he was caught behind by a diving Luke Sutton.

Hamblin had made 31 before he was caught by the only slip and Derek Kenway, who also made a good start, was caught at the wicket. When John Francis played on the Hawks needed 54 runs to win from 17 overs but there was no need for alarm.

Captain Crawley, who had scored half centuries in his three previous National League innings, shephered his side home and scored the winning runs, a cover drive off medium pacer Dominic Hewson, with his fifth boundary.

But it was Mascarenhas who was Hampshire's star man - again.

The Perth raised, London-born son of Sri Lankan parents put the result beyond any doubt when he struck an exquisite off drive followed by a six over wide mid-on off spinner Nathan Dumelow.

Mascarenhas finished with a 25-ball 28, which included four fours, to ensure that Hampshire completed their six-wicket win with nearly ten overs to spare.

But it was with the ball that he really excelled. He might not be genuinely fast but he is doing all he can to earn an England one-day call up.

Danger man Di Venuto became the 29th victim of leading wicket- taker Mascarenhas's season when the impressive Kenway held on to the first of his two diving catches.

Chris Tremlett and Alan Mullally provided Mascarenhas with good support. Tremlett's three wides cost him career best figures in the competiton but his 4-26 and Mullally's 2-27 ensured Mascarenhas's work was not wasted.

Kenway finished with four dismissals, including athletic catches to remove Chris Bassano as well as Di Venuto.

He also claimed a bizarre stumping when Gramem Welch bottom edged an attempted cut on to Kenway's pads, only to see the ball bounce back on to the stumps.

That was a clear sign that things are going Hampshire's way in this competition, if not the championship where they have only won once in 12 matches and were last week beaten inside two days by a Derbyshire side whose previous first-class win was before the FA Cup Final.

Only skipper Dominic Cork offered any significant resistance to the Hawks' attack. Cork's 52-ball 49 eventually came to an end when he mistimed the last ball of the innings to Crawley at mid wicket.

Cork, the matchwinner in the championship, gave the crowd of nearly 4,000 their money's worth.

He smashed Chaminda Vaas for a straight six, the only maximum hit of the Derbyshire innings, and followed that with one of his three fours off the next ball.

But Cork's innings was only ever going to delay Hampshire leaping back into top spot, though they could be back in second place if Lancashire defeat fellow promotion hopefuls Middlesex under lights tomorrow evening.