Shane Warne bowled through the pain barrier for his first five-wicket haul of the season.

Now the Australian star was praying the bad weather would stay away today to enable him to kickstart his captaincy career at the Rose Bowl with victory over Durham.

Warne shrugged off a neck strain to claim five Durham second-innings wickets on Saturday.

That put Hampshire in with a great chance of starting a Championship season with a win for the first time since 1992.

But rain washed out the entire third day's play yesterday and today's forecast was for more rain at some stage.

Manager Paul Terry said: "Shane has had a bit of a problem with his neck that has required some physiotherapy from Patrick Farhart, but I don't think anything would have stopped him from playing in this match."

The Frizzell County Championship Division Two match remained in the balance this morning after persistent rain persuaded umpires Peter Willey and Anthony Clarkson to abandon play for the day at lunchtime yesterday.

Hampshire continued to be frustrated as there was no play before lunch this morning due to a wet outfield.

Warne had put his side in a good position on Saturday, bowling four of his victims to finish with five for 68 as Durham were bowled out for 201, leaving Hampshire a victory target of 109. They were 13 for two in reply.

Warne's first contribution was to break up a fourth-wicket partnership between Jon Lewis and Nicky Peng which brought Durham into contention.

The visitors were still 74 runs shy of Hampshire's first-innings total of 221 when the pair came together at 19 for three. But they added 111 in 43 overs before Peng (66) was bowled by a sharply-turning delivery as he tried to work Warne to leg.

Lewis followed him in the next over, caught behind by Nic Pothas off Chris Tremlett for 50, and Durham showed a measure of resistance in adding another 70 runs for the last five wickets.

But despite his neck injury, Warne plugged away. He bowled Gavin Hamilton, had Liam Plunkett caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Tremlett and wrapped up the innings by bowling Graeme Bridge and Reon King.

Hampshire were left with nine overs to face before the close during which they lost both openers Michael Brown and Derek Kenway.

They were hoping to resume this morning 96 short of victory and with two nightwatchmen at the crease in Tremlett and Billy Taylor.

Earlier in the day, Hampshire frittered away a potentially strong overnight position of 195 for five.

The rot set in when Michael Clarke added just two to his overnight score of 73 before carving Mark Davies to Gary Pratt at gully.

Plunkett struck twice in the following over, dismissing Dimitri Mascarenhas and Warne in successive deliveries, as Hampshire lost three wickets in six balls.

Davies mopped up the tail with help from Lewis, who held catches to dismiss Taylor and Alan Mullally.

Hampshire's last five wickets tumbled inside 45 minutes for the addition of just 29 runs to their overnight total as Davies finished with career-best figures of six for 63.