Defending champions Hampshire Hawks were bowled out for 74, their lowest ever T20 Blast score, as they were thrashed by eight wickets at Somerset.
Craig Overton starred with 3-8 with the ball and four catches as Hampshire were dismissed in the 17th over.
Kent Spitfires, winners in 2021, opened their campaign with a comfortable seven-wicket win over Gloucestershire.
And in the North Group, Worcestershire Royals beat Northants Steelbacks by 15 runs.
Hampshire began last season’s T20 Blast with four successive defeats before winning 12 of their last 13 games as they claimed the trophy with a dramatic one-run win over Lancashire Lightning in the final.
That run also included victory over Somerset in the semi-final on Finals Day at Edgbaston. This time around the hosts completely outplayed their opponents at Taunton after asking the visitors to bat first.
The new ball pairing of Overton and New Zealand pace bowler Matt Henry ripped through Hampshire’s batting as they slipped to 12-3 off four overs.
Overton then took two wickets in the seventh over to reduce the visitors to 27-5 and the England bowler finished off the innings with two stunning catches in the deep as Hampshire knocked 11 runs off their previous lowest T20 score of 85, set back in 2008.
Somerset then only required 9.3 overs to reach their target of 75 with wicketkeeper Tom Banton scoring 40 off 24 balls at the top of the order.
At Canterbury, Gloucestershire looked well set at 72-2 after choosing to bat with opener Chris Dent racing to a half-century off 26 balls.
But when he departed for 55 to make it 82-4, the innings subsided as Kent took the last seven wickets for 31 runs. After Dent, the next highest score was 12.
They were all out for just 113 with more than three overs to spare, with the evergreen Michael Hogan the pick of the bowlers with 3-13 off three overs.
That total always looked too small and a second-wicket stand of 52 from Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly put Kent in a strong position.
The left-arm spin of Tom Smith held them up a little bit as he claimed 3-22 from his four overs, but some lusty hitting from Jordan Cox with 38 not out from only 16 balls saw Kent home with 39 balls to spare.
Having only won three of their 14 matches in finishing bottom of the South Group last season, it was a good start to rectifying that for the Spitfires.
More to follow.