IT is unfortunate for Hampshire that T20 Finals Day is back at Edgbaston next year. And in 2017. And in 2018.

After a fourth defeat in as many semi-finals in Birmingham, Hampshire would happily travel anywhere else should they make their seventh Finals Day appearance in the next few years.

With the sun shining this time, there was optimism that the 2010 and 2012 champions would avoid a repeat of the Edgbaston defeats of 2011, 2013 and 2014, two of which were affected by the weather.

But for the second successive season, Lancashire beat Hampshire after James Vince won the toss.

Hampshire’s scorecard had a similar look to last year, with only one batsman, Vince, making a score of note.

A year ago, Jimmy Adams made 53 out of Hampshire’s 101 (when they chased a revised target of 143 in 16 overs).

This time, Vince made a 60-ball 69 as Hampshire were bowled out for 115.

Hampshire could have done with Adams on Saturday, on the back of his brilliant 97 against Gloucestershire in the Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final defeat at Bristol three days earlier.

Vince, in Adams’ absence one of three Hampshire players making his sixth Finals Day appearance (Danny Briggs and Sean Ervine were the others) cut an exasperated figure as his teammates failed to keep him company for more than a few overs.

We feared it might be a similar story as early as the second over, when Gavin Griffiths began his T20 career and a dream day with a maiden against Hampshire’s captain after being drafted into the side on the eve of the game.

In mitigation, it was a slow, turgid wicket. “It was a tough pitch, not the sort you want to play Finals Day on,” said Vince.

But 115 was still well below par. Hampshire threw too many wickets away instead of giving Vince a chance to get them to a score of around 140.

That would have been defendable so impressively did Liam Dawson and Danny Briggs bowl on a wicket that provided plenty of natural variation for the spinners.

Hampshire only managed to eke out 37-2 from the six-over powerplay.

Even Vince struggled for timing early on before Michael Carberry, caught at mid-off, and Adam Wheater, caught behind down the leg side, fell to seamer George Edwards (2-16), another T20 rookie, in successive balls at the beginning of the sixth over.

Then Hampshire imploded against Lancashire’s spin twins, slow left-armer Stephen Parry and off-spinner Arron Lilley taking 5-32 from eight overs between them.

Owais Shah, who has been a disappointing signing given his experience, was beaten all ends up by Parry when he came down the wicket, only to be bowled by one that turned appreciably.

Ervine and Dawson were both lbw sweeping in Parry’s next two overs.

There was still hope when Will Smith joined Vince. But he failed to repeat his Bristol heroics, though he was unfortunate to be bowled via his midriff after missing an attempted pull against James Faulkner.

Chris Wood and Yasir Arafat were bowled by successive Lilley deliveries at the beginning of the penultimate over, the former missing a hack across the line before the latter played on first ball.

Any hope of a good last over dissipated when Vince skied a leading edge against James Faulkner (3-29).

Fidel Edwards’ pace beat former South Africa star Ashwell Prince in his first over, but it was a strange time for Hampshire to abandon their policy of opening with Smith’s off-spin.

Smith, who took a career-best 3-15 in last season’s corresponding game, was restricted to three overs on a track that suited the slow bowlers.

Dawson bowled the game’s second maiden (a Finals Day first), against Lancashire captain Steven Croft and was excellent in tandem with Briggs. The slow left-armers conceded only 38 between them.

Smith had Croft caught at deep mid-wicket after Briggs trapped Alex Davies lbw with his third ball.

But with Lancashire only needing less than six an over, even Briggs’ scalp of Jos Buttler, brilliantly caught by a diving Ervine on the cover boundary, did not put Lancashire under any pressure.

With Karl Brown (45 not out) providing a sound anchor, it was left to Faulkner to apply the coup de grace with successive leg-side sixes against Wood.

All of Hampshire’s semi-final defeats at Edgbaston have come in Finals Day’s second game and coach Dale Benkenstein explained some of the problems that brings in the build up to Saturday.

“There's four teams, only two changing rooms,” he said. “You have to fight your way through the crowds when you play the second game.

"The last Finals Day I found a real shambles.”

Unfortunately Hampshire’s batting was a shambles once again. At least they have first division survival to play for in the LV County Championship.