Surrey's Kevin Pietersen walks off after being caught first ball

FriendsLife T20: Surrey (84-4) lost to Hampshire Royals (63-0) by 19 runs (Duckworth/Lewis method)

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Kevin Pietersen’s troubles with slow left arm bowling continued as he departed to the first ball of the match.

Liam Dawson was the latest to join the list of left arm spinners who have claimed the former England captain’s scalp, although it was largely thanks to a brilliant catch by Jimmy Adams.

Rain delayed the start by just under two hours and the game was subsequently reduced to 10 overs a side, meaning a maximum of two overs per bowler and the powerplay lasting only three overs.

Steven Davies and Zafir Ansari contributed with 30s but Chris Wood and Sean Ervine restricted the south Londoners to 84.

Adams and opening partner James Vince put on 63 for the first wicket before the rain came again to give the Royals victory.

After the lengthy rain delay, Surrey won the toss and elected to bat.

Pietersen faced the first ball of the innings, bowled by Dawson and he tried to blast it through the covers.

However, Jimmy Adams leapt like a salmon to catch the England international, who departed for a golden duck.

Steven Davies started to tick the scoreboard over, blazing a four down to deep point.

The wicketkeeper continued to attack with two successive fours off the bowling of Dimitri Mascarenhas to move to 22 after two overs, with Jason Roy on two.

Daniel Briggs also came in for some punishment with Davies continuing his assault but the left arm spinner had his man for an 11-ball 30.

Zafir Ansari was the next man in and the south Londoners finished the three powerplay overs on 34-2.

Roy, who’d watched Davies hit boundary after boundary, then had to watch Ansari repeat the trick from Glenn Maxwell.

The batsman was struggling to find the boundary and it was no surprise when he hit Dawson straight down long on’s throat.

Zander De Bruyn was the new man in and had to watch from the non-strikers end for his first ball but an Ansari single brought the highly-rated batsman on strike.

But Dawson’s over reduced the run rate to below 10 for the first time since the first over.

And De Bruyn guided Sean Ervine down to the third man boundary to open his account but the bowler fought back to restrict Surrey’s scoring.

Briggs returned for the seventh over and Surrey looked to turn ones into twos with the overs running out and Ansari played a lovely drive over the top for four.

The youngster hit Chris Wood’s first ball of the match and the eighth over for four and the bowler followed it up with a wide.

Wood fought back with two dot balls to end the over, leaving Surrey needing two big overs to lift the score over 100.

Ervine returned from the Pavillion End and Ansari swiped a four off the third ball but Surrey only added six to the total, putting the Royals into the box seat.

Wood was to bowl the last over and Ansari picked up a single off the first ball.

De Bruyn then was clean bowled as he moved across his stumps to send the ball down to fine leg, departing for just eight, leaving his side 80-4.

Matthew Spriegel came in with four balls remaining and he and Ansari traded singles to complete Surrey’s innings.

After such a good start, the south Londoners will feel that a target of 85 should have been higher but credit must go to Wood and Ervine who gave nothing away in the final overs.

Dirk Nannes opened the bowling for Surrey with Adams and James Vince facing up to the barrage.

And the Australian international put the visitors onto the back foot, restricting Hampshire to just two off the first over.

Given that the match was a 10 over slog to concede that few runs in a powerplay over was nothing short of incredible.

Chris Tremlett opened up at the other end and Vince picked up the first boundary of the innings.

And the England paceman undid the good work from Nannes, conceding two boundaries and overstepping to allow Vince a free hit, which was streakily hit for four to move the Royals back on target.

Nannes was unable to repeat the trick with his second and final over going for 12 to leave Hampshire 31-3 after the powerplay figures as Vince stepped on the gas.

Captain for the evening Gareth Batty brought himself on to bowl as he looked to recreate the magic he had in the first two games where he bagged seven wickets.

But Adams sublimely hit the skipper over his head to add another four to the total.

Murali Kartik came into the attack and his first ball was dispatched to the boundary by Adams.

And four further leg byes took Hampshire past the halfway mark and with a required run rate of just over six an over with all 10 wickets intact, the game looked dead and buried, despite the rain lashing down.

Stuart Meaker was thrown the ball with his side needing quick wickets to claw their way back into the match.

The umpires conferred with the rain increasing intensity but that did not bother Adams, who crashed Meaker for a wonderful six.

And when the bowler lost control of the ball with his next delivery it was the cue for the umpires to call time with Hampshire triumphing by 19 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method.