Craig Kieswetter's fine form continued as he struck 81 to keep Somerset's NatWest Pro40 Division One title hopes alive with a comfortable six-wicket victory at Southampton.

South African-born opener Kieswetter shared a first wicket partnership with Marcus Trescothick (44) of 78 before taking a poor Hampshire attack to task, hitting eight fours and two sixes in his 87-ball innings.

Frustratingly for Hampshire, Kieswetter was dropped earlier on having made just two as he attempted to drive Dimitri Mascarenhas over the top but Chris Tremlett was too casual in his attempts.

The home side had earlier posted a disappointing 205, thanks mainly to Mascarenhas' rapid 43 from 29 balls at the tail end of the innings but on an inspiring Rose Bowl pitch it was barely a competitive total.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, Hampshire got off to a poor start as Charl Willoughby's claimed three victims inside the opening 12 overs, leaving the Hawks on the back foot.

Willoughby had Jimmy Adams (two) comfortably caught by Jos Buttler at deep square leg before Michael Lumb (28) was removed leg before wicket and Sean Ervine (10) clean bowled.

Teenage batsmen James Vince (20) fell to Ben Phillips and with little to play for in this year's competition Hampshire looked like a side suffering from end-of-season syndrome.

However Chris Benham (42) and Liam Dawson (34) produced a fifth wicket stand of 81 to bring some stability but the partnership was broken when teenage all-rounder Dawson's lobbed drive from Zander de Bruyn was comfortably caught in the deep by Peter Trego.

Benham soon followed, caught by James Hildreth, leaving the experience of Mascarenhas, Nic Pothas (seven) and Chris Tremlett (six not out) to give the score an air of respectability.

Trescothick and Kieswetter's opening stand indicated a short afternoon for the Rose Bowl crowd but the former England opener, despite looking in good touch with an aggressive knock compromising five fours and three sixes, smashed Hamza Riazuddin to Lumb.

An out-of-touch Hildreth (12) departed having barely troubled the scorecard before Kieswetter and de Bruyn's partnership of 87 took the game away from Hampshire with some sensible shot play.

Kieswetter's half-century was brought up from 68 balls with a well-struck boundary in the 25th over and from that moment on it was the Sabres' game to lose.

Ervine claimed the wicket of de Bruyn (25) and although Kieswetter's concentration lapsed with Somerset 25 runs from their total as he misread Riazuddin's slower ball to be caught by Vince, Trego (14 not out) and Suppiah (eight not out) saw them home with 42 balls to spare.