Hampshire 178 for 5 (Dawson 76) beat Surrey 174 for 8 (Curran 38) by five wickets
Dawson retired from red-ball cricket earlier this month but jumped into his new life with a thrilling 76 off 44 balls – his seventh T20 fifty and first since a 59 against Sussex Sharks in 2023.
He underpinned the Hawks chase of 175 with stands of 51 with Tom Prest and 83 with Tristan Stubbs to complete the victory with five balls to spare.
This was the first time Surrey had lost a Blast match at Utilita Bowl since 2015.
Jason Roy gave Surrey a flier, having chosen to bat first, when he and Will Jacks combined to take Chris Wood for a six-fuelled 21 runs in the third over.
But three wickets in four overs started to turn the tide towards the hosts; Scott Currie had Jacks holing out, Wood got his own back on Roy, and 17-year-old Manny Lumsden nicked Ollie Pope off for his first T20 wicket.
Surrey struggled to capitalise on the promise of partnerships in the middle order as Dan Lawrence and Laurie Evans found the magnetic hands of Hilton Cartwright off James Fuller.
Hampshire owned the death overs with just 12 runs coming after the 16th over, with three wickets – including a miraculous Cartwright catch.
All they needed to do to keep Surrey under par was close out the last over…but Jordan Clark had other ideas.
Having struck six off the first two balls, he proceeded to nail six after six over the legside. His final over tally was 30 runs to take his side to 174.
Toby Albert saw what Clark had done and thought he fancied a bit of it; firing a trio of maximums off Yousef Majid in the second over. But that just started a topsy-turvy powerplay.
Reece Topley and Tom Curran combined for three wickets in as many overs, whipping out James Vince, Joe Weatherley and Albert.
But the Hawks still ended the powerplay ahead of the rate on 62 for three as Dawson’s elevation brought an immediate four-six combo.
Dawson put on 51 with Tom Prest – before he slapped to deep cover – but just carried on seamlessly with Stubbs.
His brutality thumped five sixes on a pitch where fluency had been tricky all day, with the last of those maximums taking the Hawks to the winning line, and ended Surrey’s winning start to the campaign.
