Brilliant Bears seal 2nd XI T20 title in style

Having tasted glory in the 2025 iteration of the tournament, Simon Kerrigan's side needed to defend 181 runs in order to make it back-to-back titles, ultimately doing so as a result of some excellent batting from Vansh Jani and Hamza Shaikh being followed up with some quality bowling from the likes of Taz Ali and Oliver Hannon-Dalby in the Nottinghamshire run chase.

Earlier in the encounter, the Outlaws had won the toss and decided to have a bowl first, a decision which appeared to have backfired somewhat in the opening exchanges as the in-form Jani bludgeoned a quickfire 39 from just 13 deliveries alongside Omaris Khan (9) to bring up Warwickshire's team 50 midway through the 4th over.

However, once the latter had his stumps rearranged by seamer James Hayes (3/27) towards the end of that same over, the momentum of the powerplay began to swing in the favour of the Outlaws, as Hayes and fellow speedster Dillon Pennington (2/29) dismissed Alex Davies (1) and the aforementioned Jani in quick succession to leave the Bears in a slight state of rebuild and reconsolidation with the score reading 55/3 in the 6th over.

After this small wobble though, the remaining 14 overs of the innings belonged predominantly to the defending champions, with a handy 51 run fourth wicket partnership between skipper Hamza Shaikh (55) and George Garton (28) being followed by an invaluable 65 run stand between Shaikh and Theo Wylie (28*) for the fifth wicket, as the West Midlands outfit ultimately reached a sizeable total of 180/6 come the end of their 20 overs.

In response to their target of 181, Nottinghamshire got off to an uncharacteristically poor start to their run chase, as the top order trio of Ben Martindale (0), Sam Seecharan (16) and Henry Rogers (2) fell to the bowling of Oliver Hannon-Dalby (3/24) and Nathan Gilchrist (2/36) within the first 4 overs of the powerplay to leave the East Midlanders faltering on a precarious score of 28/3.

In truth, things didn’t get much easier for the Outlaws for the next 10 overs or so either, as the increasingly confident Warwickshire bowling attack - spearheaded by promising leg spinner Taz Ali (2/23) and rising seamer Che Simmons (1/14) - took wickets at regular intervals to restrict their opposition to a tally of 120/7 upon the culmination of the 14th over.

At this stage of the contest, it appeared as though the final result was all but sealed, or at least it would have been if not for some crisp ball striking from Notts number 10 Dillon Pennington, who blitzed a quickfire 25 from just 13 deliveries alongside former Lancashire all-rounder Rob Lord (16) to give his side a slender slither of hope and optimism heading into the latter stages of the run chase.

As soon as Lord sliced a low full toss from Gilchrist into the awaiting palms of Hamza Shaikh at the end of the 18th over however, the outcome of this contest was only ever heading in one direction, and that direction was finally confirmed just one delivery later when the powerful Pennington’s dashing cameo came to an abrupt end at the hands of Hannon-Dalby, whose third wicket of the game ultimately confirmed the victory for the Bears by a comfortable margin of 27 runs.

All of us here at The Bear would like to congratulate the Warwickshire 2nd XI on their successive T20 Cup titles and wish them the very best of luck heading into the remainder of the 2nd XI Championship campaign as well.

2026 2nd XI T20 Cup Final:

Warwickshire Bears 180/6 (20) beat Nottinghamshire Outlaws 153 all out (18.1) by 27 runs.