Hollioake was Surrey's leadign run-scorer and wicket-taker

The Foxes won by seven wickets with five balls to spare to end Surrey's unbeaten run in two years of the event.

"There's no shame in losing, only shame in not trying your best and we certainly gave it our best.

"You win some and you lose some," said Hollioake, who is set to retire from all cricket at the end of the year.

Surrey had scraped through in their semi-final earlier in the day, seeing off Lancashire by one run.

"When you've been in enough of those at the end you're going to lose one the odd one," added Hollioake.

"You've got to keep trying, keep coming back and trying to bowl at the end."

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

The Foxes, led by skipper Brad Hodge's unbeaten 77 off just 53 balls, hunted down Surrey's 168-6 impressively.

"It was a great knock and Jeremy Snape played well at the end as well," Hollioake said.

"They played some great cricket to chase down a total we were pretty happy with."

When asked if the final was definitely his last Twenty20 Cup match, Hollioake replied: "I guess so.

"It's not a good way to finish but it was nice to get as far as we did and it's been a good run.

"It was a fantastic day and we would have liked to have won but we gave it our best shot."

Captain Jonathan Batty refused to blame fatigue for the Surrey defeat, which featured some uncharacteristically clumsy fielding.

A Championship match against Worcestershire on Friday meant some of the team did not reach Birmingham until 11pm on the eve of finals day.

"It's not ideal preparation," admitted the wicket-keeper.

"We were tired this morning but the way we played you wouldn't have known it.

"I don't think that was a major factor any more than it is in county cricket in general."