Twenty20 Cup 2006: Leicestershire Foxes Win by 4 Runs in Highest-Scoring T20 Cup Final — Darren Maddy's 86* Anchors Record 177/2

Leicestershire Foxes won the Twenty20 Cup 2006 on 12 August 2006 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, defeating Nottinghamshire Outlaws by 4 runs. Leicestershire scored 177/2 in 20 overs — the highest total ever made in a T20 Cup final to that point — built on Darren Maddy's 86* and a 133-run partnership with Jim Allenby. Nottinghamshire, in reply, reached 173/8 in 20 overs (Stephen Fleming 53 off 34 balls) — 4 runs short of the target. Maddy won Player of the Match. Jeremy Snape captained Leicestershire to their second T20 Cup title — having also won in 2004 — making the Foxes the competition's most successful early-era team.

Darren Maddy 86* and a 133-Run Partnership: The Record-Breaking Final Total

Darren Maddy's 86* off in Leicestershire's 177/2 — combined with Jim Allenby's contribution to a 133-run partnership — produced the highest total in any T20 Cup final to that point in the competition's four-year history. Maddy, Leicestershire's right-handed batter who had been one of the county circuit's most consistent white-ball performers across the early 2000s (having also been the competition's leading run-scorer in 2004), provided the batting foundation that Jeremy Snape's captaincy was able to build a 177-run total around. Nottinghamshire's 173/8 in response — within 4 runs of the target, with Stephen Fleming (53 off 34 balls) providing the closest thing to a match-winning batting performance for the Outlaws — reflected a final where the run-chase was competitive from over to over, with 4 runs being the difference between back-to-back Trent Bridge T20 championships for opposite county teams.

Leicestershire's Second Title: Back-to-Back Non-Consecutive T20 Cup Championships

Leicestershire Foxes winning the 2006 Twenty20 Cup — as they had won in 2004, with Somerset winning in between (2005) — made them the first county to win the competition twice in its first four years. Their back-to-back non-consecutive championships (2004 and 2006) gave the Foxes a T20 Cup pedigree that the competition's early era rewarded: a county that had identified T20 cricket's batting and bowling requirements and built squads capable of performing consistently across multiple seasons. Jeremy Snape's 2006 captaincy — taking over from the 2004 title-winning leadership — added a new captain's name to the Foxes' T20 Cup championship history. Nottinghamshire's runner-up finish in their home Final (Trent Bridge being Nottinghamshire's county ground) gave the 2006 final the home-ground runner-up narrative that appeared in other domestic T20 finals — a county falling short at their own venue against a superior opponent.

Twenty20 Cup 2006 in Context

The Twenty20 Cup 2006 was the competition's fourth edition — part of the naming evolution from 'Twenty20 Cup' (2003-2010) to the 'Friends Provident t20' and then 'FL t20' before becoming the NatWest T20 Blast in 2014 and the Vitality T20 Blast in 2018. Leicestershire's 4-run win over Nottinghamshire — the narrowest winning margin in a T20 Cup final to that point — gave the 2006 edition a dramatic conclusion that the competition's record-setting 177/2 batting total set up: a high-scoring first innings followed by a last-ball run-rate chase. Nottinghamshire's 173/8 — requiring 177 to win and reaching 173 — confirmed that the Outlaws had batted competitively on their home ground but ultimately fell 4 runs short of the title-winning total that Darren Maddy and Jim Allenby's partnership had set.