Niall O'Brien's perfectly paced century enabled Leicestershire Foxes to beat Hampshire by six wickets in a rain-truncated Royal London One-Day Cup match at the Ageas Bowl.
O'Brien hammered seven sixes in 72 balls, including the winning hit off James Tomlinson - which also brought up his century, as he reached 105 not out and Leicestershire chased down a revised target of 186 from 25 overs with four balls to spare.
The Foxes, who were heavily beaten by Gloucestershire on Tuesday, required 10 from Tomlinson's last over but O'Brien made light of it by sending the first ball for four and the second over the ropes at midwicket.
It gave the Foxes their their second win in four matches, while Hampshire slumped to their third defeat to make qualification tricky.
The hosts won the toss, chose to bat first on a comfortable batting wicket and made a challenging 275 for nine, although they failed to make the best of a scintillating opening stand of 88 in 12.5 overs between Michael Carberry and James Adams.
At the close of the innings, Leicestershire would have been required to score at the rate of 5.5 an over but a deluge wiped three hours from the playing time and the target was revised to more than seven an over under the Duckworth-Lewis calculations.
In effect Leicestershire had half the overs in which to score about two-thirds of Hampshire's total, daunting enough at the best of times, but O'Brien was soon in his stride and the new total always looked to be in sight.
SIX | What a way to win the game! @niallnobiobrien through to a marvellous 72-ball hundred, he's our matchwinner. Foxes home by 6 wkts
— Leicestershire CCC (@leicsccc) August 6, 2014
Angus Robson (15) mistimed a pull off Tomlinson to Danny Briggs at mid-off but that prompted the highest stand of the match, 95 between O'Brien and Greg Smith for the second wicket in 12.1 overs.
Smith went for 34 to a brilliant diving catch by Matt Coles at mid-on with Leicestershire needing 63 to win.
Hampshire hopes were raised briefly when Matthew Boyce and Dan Redfern fell in quick succession. only for Tom Wells to keep O'Brien company for his final salvo.
Earlier, despite the absence of in-form skipper and England Lion James Vince, Hampshire raced away through Carberry and Adams.
Carrbery struck a 50-ball 61 but both openers fell within seven runs of one another to prompt a middle-order wobble.
Hampshire lost Adam Wheater, Sean Ervine, Liam Dawson, Will Smith and Matt Coles so that six wickets had fallen for 83 in 22 overs.
Much of the damage was caused by Leicestershire spinners, James Sykes, Redfern and Jigar Naik, who between them bowled 29 overs and took 6-130.
Hampshire were revived from 171 for seven by a stand of 70 in 10.1 overs between Sean Terry and Chris Wood for the eighth wicket.
MATCH PIC (@LMIPhotography): @sterry91 on his way to his highest score for Hampshire (63) earlier on today. #RLODCpic.twitter.com/eqS7abcNSH
— Hampshire Cricket (@hantscricket) August 6, 2014
Terry made a format-best 63 and even after he was ninth out at 246, there was last-wicket defiance from Danny Briggs and Tomlinson, who put on an unbeaten 29.
Then the rain came, paving the way for O’Brien’s thrilling assault.
Afterwards, the Ireland international said: "I thought it was a fair score to chase, the equation was about right.
"We have done poorly in the County Championship and the Twenty20 with a young side so this has kept our season going. We have big matches coming up against Yorkshire and Northamptonshire.
"I got a ton here for Northants in 2011 and I felt I owed the side some runs . It helped that batting got better as the result of the rain.”
Hampshire top scorer Terry said: "I set myself a target of batting through and didn’t quite happen. My aim was to keep the scoreboard ticking over with singles and getting the boundaries later.
"Sometimes I play some dumb cricket but not this time. The lads are downhearted because it is our third defeat in four and we have a lot of work to do now."