A busy mid-season period saw Nottinghamshire Academy move to within touching distance of silverware, as Sussex await the Outlaws in the ECB Under-18s County Plate final in September.
July and August saw Notts see off Lincolnshire, Worcestershire and Northumberland to reach the County Plate final, with several star performances to note, while valuable points were gathered in the County Championship Group 1 as Nottinghamshire’s youngsters were beaten just once in seven fixtures.
Adi Badge, top of the County Plate run-scoring charts with 274, ran riot in a DLS win over Lincolnshire in the second round with a whopping score of 180, his 214-run partnership with Sam Seecharan (the competition’s third-top scorer) seeing Notts home to victory over their county neighbours.
On the other side of defeat to Derbyshire in the County Championship - in which Travis Holland tallied 118 from just 119 balls - Byron Hatton-Lowe, Akand Gangotra and Sam Seecharan each took three-wicket hauls in a masterful bowling display which saw Worcestershire reduced to 156 in their County Plate quarter-final success.
Two draws in the County Championship followed, Seecharan with a strong all-round display against Leicestershire as he took 3/29 from 20.2 overs - Hatton-Lowe supporting with 4/69 - before scoring 151 with the bat to set up a declaration at 403/9, Leicestershire able to cling on for a draw with four wickets in hand.
Mihir Patel took an impressive five-fer against Lancashire in the following game, bowling 30 overs before Badge and Seecharan saw out a valuable draw having trailed by 137.
Hatton-Lowe then took 4/46 (Josh Beer 2/33), while Badge (83*) and Holland (51) put on a 103-run partnership to see Notts past Northumberland and through to the County Plate final, Hatton-Lowe surging to the top of the wicket-taking table.
Returning to the red-ball format two days later, Badge’s 134-run knock led Notts to a superb first innings total against Durham with Toby Lambert (84), Josh Beer (86) and Byron Hatton-Lowe (79) all making considerable contributions, while Patel imposed with the ball with two wickets and an economy of 2.96 from 25 overs as the two sides shared the spoils.
The young Green and Golds return to action on Tuesday 27 August at Weetwood, hosted by Yorkshire as they search for their first win of the County Championship Group 1 campaign.
Their County Plate final takes place on Sunday 1 September at Kibworth CC, starting at 10.45am.