It is not often that a Hampshire side is as dominant as Shane Warne's men have been against Warwickshire, the 2004 county champions, at Edgbaston this week.

This time last year Warwickshire were giving Hampshire a ten-wicket hiding at Stratford upon Avon.

Heath Streak, pictured below, played a big part in that defeat, but his generosity in deciding to field first on the first day of this match was almost as hard to believe as Ricky Ponting's decision to insert England during the second Test of last year's Ashes series.

It has put Hampshire in the ascendancy, and yesterday they turned the screw on Warwickshire, by reducing the home side to 160-5, after extending their overnight 280-4 to 405 all out.

Hampshire ensured maximum batting points for the second match in succession by going past the 400-mark.

John Crawley battled through an illness in adding a painstaking 31 in 30 overs to his 65 before he was beaten by Alex Loudon, four runs short of his first century of the season.

Crawley batted for five and a half hours for his 258-ball 96, which included just five fours, before spending the rest of the day recovering in the dressing room with the help of antibiotics.

Nic Pothas, having only managed single-figure scores in his first four innings of the season, added an unbeaten 67 from 137 balls to the 100 he scored last week.

Warne thrashed four boundaries in his 13-ball 17 before he sent a looping catch to first slip, but he would have been encouraged by the turn that Loudon (5-109) extracted.

It was Loudon's doosra that accounted for Hampshire's last man, James Bruce, who then proceeded to take the valuable early wickets of the two Warwickshire dangermen.

Bruce is now only one short of his wickets tally for the whole of last season after dismissing Nick Knight and Jonathan Trott in his fourth and fifth overs.

First Knight was caught at first slip by Sean Ervine after edging an attempted square cut, and then Trott, who has had an outstanding start to the season, was trapped lbw by an off-cutter for an eight-ball duck.

Trott has already scored two centuries in the championship this year and was averaging 99.6 before yesterday.

Warne, buoyed by Hampshire's dominance, was even more voluble than usual. The acoustics at Edgbaston are such that the press box is privy to every word that is uttered on the field of play.

And Warne was responsible for most of them, as Hampshire closed in on a second successive championship win.

Dimitri Mascarenhas bowled left-hander Westwood, who was beaten through the gate, and Loudon, who had his off stump knocked back by an off-cutter during ten miserly overs from the all-rounder.

And then Michael Powell top-edged an attempted sweep against Warne and Carberry took a simple catch at short fine leg as Warwickshire slumped to 120-5.

The Bears' main hope of avoiding the follow on - they are 96 short of the 255 target - is Jim Troughton, who finished unbeaten on 75 from 149 balls with ten fours, and drove beautifully through the covers all day.