Sussex had red faces to match the socks they were wearing for Sport Relief as they crashed out of the Twenty20 Cup at Hove.

The county were shot out for 67 in 14.5 overs, the lowest total in the competition's brief history, by a Hampshire side whose only previous Twenty20 win was against Sussex on launch night 13 months ago. They even lost two warm-up matches against a team of club cricketers.

Dimitri Mascerenhas dismissed Mark Davis, Mushtaq Ahmed and Jason Lewry to claim the first Twenty20 hat-trick on his way to the best figures in the competition so far.

A crowd of close to 4,000 turned up expecting to see fours and sixes. Instead bowlers held sway on a seaming pitch where the ball jagged around disconcertingly.

It looked a foregone conclusion at halfway but Hampshire only just staggered over the line when Chris Tremlett hit the last ball of the penultimate over for six.

The less said about Sussex's batting the better although disgruntled members had plenty of choice words to describe it during the interval.

Only Chris Adams showed any sort of technique when the ball was darting around. Nine of their batsmen mustered just ten runs between them.

Sussex managed to get through the first over, although Ian Ward was dropped off his own bowling by James Bruce, but it was not long before the carnage began.

Ward was caught behind swiping across the line at Tremlett and Michael Yardy was run out by the length of the pitch when Matt Prior rightly refused a single after guiding the ball to point.

It was 6-3 when Murray Goodwin was bowled through the gate in Bruce's next over.

Prior drove Tremlett's slower ball to mid off in the fourth over and at 10-4 there did not appear to be any way back for Sussex.

It was not until the 12th over, when Adams came down the pitch to clobber Shaun Udal over long on, that the ball disappeared into the crowd for the first time - but the skipper had lost two partners in the meantime.

Luke Wright helped him in a fifth wicket stand of 22 before slicing a drive to deep cover while Robin Martin-Jenkins nibbled at one which held its line to become Mascerenhas's first victim.

Then came Mascerenhas's moments to remember.

Davis fell in identical fashion to Martin-Jenkins, Mushtaq was bowled through the gate and Lewry edged to second slip.

At 51-9 in the 13th over, Adams had little option but to farm the strike with only James Kirtley for company. He did it well enough plundering 16 runs including a six over mid-wicket which spoiled Mascerenhas's figures slightly and it was testament to the way Sussex's bowlers harnessed conditions that they made Hampshire work so hard for the win.

After four overs they were tottering on 16-4 with both their bighitting Australians back in the dugout.

Kirtley bowled Michael Brown with his second ball which pitched on middle and hit off and Michael Clarke lost his off bail shouldering arms to a nip-backer.

Lewry was just as effective, inducing Udal and Shane Watson to chop on. While those two were operating in tandem, Hampshire's batsmen could hardly lay bat on ball and, although Crawley and Greg Lamb survived for seven overs, they only scored 22 runs.

Hampshire needed 21 from the last four overs and the atmosphere was frenzied when Crawley, whose 14 came in 14 overs, was bowled by Davis's quicker ball as he came down the pitch.

Adams trusted the last four overs to his spinners and Mushtaq's googly deceived Mascerenhas in the 18th. Two overs left, 12 needed, but Tremlett collected six off Davis's first five balls before settling the issue with a magnificent six over long off.