Hodge played a wonderful innings to end Surrey's Twenty20 reign

Leicestershire ended Surrey's two-year unbeaten run to claim the second Twenty20 Cup with a thrilling seven-wicket victory at a packed Edgbaston.

Brad Hodge hit an unbeaten 77 from 53 balls as the Foxes overhauled Surrey's 168-6 with five balls to spare.

Jeremy Snape hit the winning boundary to finish 34 not out, after sharing an unbroken stand of 47 with his captain.

Surrey opener Alistair Brown (64) had earlier shared an 80-run stand for the second wicket with Scott Newman (21).

Our planning, preparation, determination and good cricket got us through Brad Hodge Foxes reaction

The Foxes for once had to manage without the leadership of Darren Maddy, who was clean bowled by Paul Sampson for 22 after an opening stand of 61.

Maddy took his total for the competition to 356 runs, 139 clear of his nearest rival David Hemp of Glamorgan, vanquished by Leicestershire at the semi-final stage.

Hodge, who enjoyed similar success last year but had been subdued so far this term, filled the breech easily.

The Australian set the tone when he hooked Clarke for six, in a fourth over that cost the sometime England all-rounder 20 in all.

He added 52 for the third wicket with Darren Stevens before the latter fell to Adam Hollioake's second delivery, plucked out of the air by Azhar Mahmood, for 20.

Leicestershire were also helped by some uncharacteristically lax ground fielding from the Lions, who endured a full day of fielding in their Championship win over Worcestershire on Friday.

Brown gave Surrey a good platform at the top of the order

Hollioake, the competition's leading wicket-taker with 20, tried manfully to quell the runs in what was likely to be his final appearance.

His figures were ruined by Snape's six into the Ryder Stand in the penultimate over - he finished with 2-36 - and his colleagues could not match his taunting variation.

Surrey, who scraped through their semi-final against Lancashire by a single run, had some more early luck batting first as Edgbaston's temporary floodlights filled the lengthening shadows.

Newman fell to the second chance he gave, Mark Cleary collecting a thrash at long off, but Brown's first let-off, on 40, was more costly.

After Ottis Gibson put down a straightforward chance in the deep, the destructive right-hander moved to his half-century from 43 deliveries by beating the hapless fielder again.

He celebrated by carving Charlie Dagnall into the stand at mid-wicket before edging South African left-armer Claude Henderson's first delivery of the match to short third-man.

There's no shame in losing, only shame in not trying your best and we certainly gave it our best Adam Hollioake Surrey reaction

The tempo stayed high from there, Mark Ramprakash lending backbone with a run-a-ball 24 not out while his partners were content with cameos.

The former England batsman hit just two boundaries, the second off the final ball.

Meanwhile, Clarke added 13 in as many balls, boosted by a six over mid-wicket off Henderson.

And Mahmood helped Cleary over backward square leg on his was to 13 from eight balls.

In a day that had already seen two matches, Surrey's total was the highest so far, but Leicestershire managed to do even better, to the delight of a partisan crowd.

Leicestershire Foxes: B J Hodge (Capt), D L Maddy, D I Stevens J L Sadler, J N Snape, P A Nixon (Wkt), O D Gibson, D G Brandy C W Henderson, M F Cleary, C E Dagnall.

Surrey Lions: A D Brown, J G E Benning, S A Newman, M R Ramprakash R Clarke, A J Hollioake, Azhar Mahmood, J N Batty (Capt, Wkt) J Ormond, P J Sampson, N D Doshi.