IT was no surprise when Shane Warne opted to bat first after winning the toss before Hampshire's championship match against third-placed Glamorgan.

He was not going to make the same mistake twice.

Last week's thrashing at home to Essex, when Warne decided to field first, is still fresh in the memory.

But Michael Brown and Derek Kenway took the chance to capitalise on a good wicket yesterday.

Both hit their best scores since scoring their only hundreds of the season more than three months ago.

Opener Brown's 90 was his fourth fifty in ten championship innings, but Kenway's 64 was his first half century in the 16 innings he has had since scoring 101 against Derbyshire at the beginning of May.

Kenway's fifty came in his third innings since his switch to number five but Jimmy Adams, the man who has taken his place at the top of the order, was needlessly run out before Brown and John Crawley put on 111 for the second wicket.

Adams, one of the heroes of the nine-wicket win at Sophia Gardens a fortnight ago, was turned back by Brown after prodding the ball into the off side.

Adrian Dale's direct hit ensured an inauspicious start by second-placed Hampshire - Adams was gone in the fifth over and Brown had not got off the mark

That changed in the seventh over, when Brown scored his first runs in emphatic fashion by hooking Michael Kasprowicz for the first of his two sixes.

He barely offered a chance but Matthew Maynard missed what, by his standards, was an easy catch at slip that would have dismissed Crawley when the former England man had made 22 of his 47 runs.

The score was 51 for 1 when Crawley edged Kasprowicz to second slip but he and Brown were still there at lunch.

Brown reached his fifty off 117 balls when he cut Robert Croft for three in the last over before the interval.

But Crawley became the first of three wickets to fall in the afternoon session when he was trapped lbw by Croft after offering no shot - as was the case in his first innings at Cardiff a fortnight ago.

Six overs later Michael Clarke, who is playing his last championship match of the season, prodded Croft to short mid on.

But the runs were flowing from Brown's bat. He pulled Croft for six over mid-wicket but with a second Hampshire hundred in his sights he lost his middle stump to a Darren Thomas off cutter after just over four hours at the crease.

Hampshire have never lost when Brown has scored fifty or more. And if his 90, which came from 183 balls and included 11 boundaries, contributes to a total in excess of 400, Hampshire will be well on course for a seventh championship win of the season.

After he had departed, Kenway helped put on 57 for the fifth wicket before Nic Pothas missed a full toss as he heaved across the line.

It was an ignominious way for the hero of last season's astonishing win against Glamorgan to go.

Pothas was the architect of the remarkable victory at the Rose Bowl last July, when he scored 121 as Hampshire won - for the first time that season in the four-day league - after following on for the first time since 1922.

He did hit Croft for a worthy six over mid wicket before handing the off spinner his third wicket.

Kenway continued to bat as well as he has done all season, but nicked Kasprowicz to the keeper seven overs later after batting nearly three hours for his 64.

Dimitri Mascarenhas and Shane Warne scored as freely as if it were a one day match.

Together they put on 42 in eight overs before Mascarenhas was caught by Matthew Elliott at third man after attempting to cut the first delivery with the new ball.

But Warne was still unbeaten on a 30-ball 32 at stumps, an innings that has so far included three fours and a six.

Hampshire's skipper needs another three runs for his highest score of the season but, at 317 for 7, the priority for his side is another 83 runs and two more bonus points.