AXED England keeper Geraint Jones lost the inter-Ashes battle against Shane Warne as Kent gave up their last four wickets for eight runs to go down to Hampshire by 18 on the final day of Canterbury Cricket Week.

Jones teamed up with seventh-wicket partner Matt Walker with their side still needing 100 for victory and gradually worked their way toward the finishing line with a stand of 73 that ended with the re-introduction of Warne.

With the asking rate teetering at one a ball, Walker fell for 44 to a catch in the deep to Warne’s fourth ball back then James Tredwell chopped the next delivery onto his stumps to heighten the tension at 179 for eight.

Deprived of the strike and with 28 to his name, Jones sat on his bat to watch Amjad Khan and then last man Min Patel go leg-before as The Hawks sealed their win with 15 balls to spare

Warne had again proved their nemesis taking three wickets in five balls in his last spell and four for 14 in all from 6.3 overs.

Responding to Hampshire’s 40-over total of 200 for eight, Spitfires made a sticky start by losing Darren Stevens in only the second over when he steered a Billy Taylor slower ball to Warne at slip.

With Neil Dexter struggling to get the ball off the square, the run-scoring onus fell on Martin van Jaarsveld who cantered to 42 in a second-wicket stand worth 48.

He faced just 31 balls before miscuing high to mid-off to bring together fellow South Africans Dexter and Tyron Henderson.

Dexter, dropped on three off a sitter at long-leg by James Tomlinson, was shown how to go about one-day batting as Henderson clubbed three successive fours off Taylor.

With 19 from 10 balls Henderson took on Warne’s second ball and failed spectacularly to lose his leg stump and make it 75 for three as the leg-spinner opened with a wicket maiden.

In the following over skipper Rob Key clipped his fourth ball low to square-leg off Sean Ervine to go without troubling the scorers and ensure the first four wicket-takers did so in their first overs.

Ervine then squared up Dwayne Bravo to find a leading edge that looped to short cover where Warne has specifically positioned himself and at the half-way stage of their reply Kent had wobbled to 100 for five.

Shaun Udal became the fifth bowler to take a wicket in his opening over when he ended Dexter’s painful 51-ball stay after winning a leg before appeal following a missed pull shot.

That bought in Jones for only his second Pro40 appearance of the campaign, but to face another pressure situation with the bat against Warne and Udal in tandem.

The introduction of occasional off-spinner Greg Lamb eased the tension when he conceded 11 in his first over including seven wides, then Udal conceded a six to Walker as Kent just about maintained the five-per-over asking rate.

The pair added 71 before the wheels came off the Kent run chase once and for all.

Hampshire’s innings, as in this last week’s corresponding championship match, started with a duck for former Kent batsman Michael Carberry who gloved a vicious Amjad Khan bouncer into the gloves of Geraint Jones.

Nic Pothas (55) and Ervine then joined forces to add 92 for the second wicket inside 16 overs before Jones featured again with a stunning one-handed catch, low to his left as Ervine toe-ended a wide slash off Bravo.

Witnessing the catch from the president’s marquee former Kent and England legend Alan Knott, paying a rare visit to Canterbury at the invitation of president Derek Underwood, told those watching it was "a catch any wicketkeeper anywhere would be proud of".

Pothas soon followed having scored 55 from 74 balls, flicking across the line to Tredwell to make it 106 for three after 24 overs.

The wickets fell at a steady rate thereafter, Dominic Thornely (7) top-edged a paddle sweep to give Jones a more comfortable catch then John Crawley (21) spooned another simple chance to cover off Dexter.

Two balls later Warne chopped on when trying a run down against the South African swing bowler then Lamb miscued to extra cover to give Khan a second wicket.

Jones saved his fourth and best catch until last to account for Udal to give Patel his sole wicket.

Edging an attempted paddle shot, the ball to a thick deflection and rebounded off Jones’s right glove but he reacted swiftly to dive forward and snaffle the chance at the second time of asking.

Dimitri Mascarenhas bludgeoned the last ball of the innings over long off for six to move to 47 from 37 balls and post the Hampshire total of 200 which proved to be enough.