JIMMY Adams celebrated the birth of his second son with the fastest half-century of his career as Hampshire won their first match of the season in style.

Adams needed only 22 balls to reach fifty as Hampshire made 173-4 against Essex at The Ageas Bowl, before winning their opening T20 Blast match by 17 runs.

Playing the 100th match of his domestic T20 career in the week that his second son, Joshua, was born, Adams hit five fours and two sixes in an unbeaten 55 (25 balls).

After an opening stand of 63 from 53 balls between Michael Carberry (36) and James Vince, Adams hit Jesse Ryder's medium pace for successive fours, driven and swept, at the end of the tenth over as Hampshire reached 74-1 at halfway.

He soon lost Vince (32), who was caught at backward point to the third ball from Essex captain Ryan Ten Doeschate, who flew back from the Indian Premier League this morning to play in his side's double-header, with Surrey due to visit Chelmsford tomorrow.

But Adams received good support from Owais Shah, who thumped a 23-ball 32 against his former Essex teammates in a partnership of 67 from 38 balls.

Adams hit his sixes in successive overs, over long-on against the leg-spin of Adeel Malik, brother of Shoaib, and spectacularly upper-cut into the same block of seats against the pace of Shaun Tait as 16 came off the 14th, most expensive over.

Shah holed out to long-on in the 18th, attempting a repeat of his six against the medium pace of Jesse Ryder a few balls earlier.

Ryder did not lost long when Essex began their reply under the Ageas Bowl floodlights.

After the opening over from Will Smith, the Kiwi's off stump was uprooted when he played on against Chris Wood's third delivery.

Then Fidel Edwards (4-0-26-1) showed the quality that made him a Test star when he dismantled Nick Browne's stumps on the left-hander's T20 debut.

Bowling with genuine pace, Edwards' unplayable yorker - his first delivery at The Ageas Bowl on his T20 Blast debut - reduced Essex to 5-2 at the beginning of their third over.

Kishen Velani's 17-ball 21 included two fours and a six from four Wood deliveries before he was bowled midway through Yasir Arafat's first over for Hampshire.

Greg Smith, whose spectacular catch as he ran towards mid-wicket from long-on accounted for Sean Ervine (nine) in Hampshire's final over, briefly threatened. His 21-ball 30 included a six over long-on against Will Smith's off-spin, but his namesake soon had his revenge, with the South African stumped by former Essex man Adam Wheater.

Ten Doeschate, who flies back to India on Sunday to finish his stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders, kept Essex in the game with a 44-ball 68.

He shared 28 with Smith and another 21 in three overs with James Foster, who was caught by substitute Liam Dawson at long-off.

Danny Briggs (4-0-33-2) had his second wicket in three balls when he bowled debutant Callum Taylor at the beginning of his next over.

With Graham Napier the seventh-wicket partner for Ten Doeschate, Essex were still in it. But after a majestic maximum against Wood (4-0-37-2), he nicked the left-armer's next ball to leave the visitors 135-6 - needing 39 from three overs.

When Dawson's ran out Adeel Malik with a direct hit from mid-wicket, Ten Doeschate kept Essex hopes alive with two sixes in four balls against Edwards and Arafat, before the latter took two wickets in as many balls to secure victory with three balls remaining.