Nottinghamshire’s 2025 Academy cohort enjoyed valuable match practice over five fixtures in South Africa at the end of February.
During a five-day period in the Rainbow Nation, the young Green and Golds played a combination of games against Sport School of Excellence (SSE), Titans Colts, and Waterkloof.
They earned wins in two of the fixtures, seeing off the former in the second of two matches between the sides, and also won the sole T20 clash they entertained the latter in.
Both victories were underpinned by strong displays with the bat, as SSE were overrun in a nine-wicket win thanks to an opening partnership worth 92 between Travis Holland and Max Kennedy.
While the triumph over Waterkloof was by a comparatively smaller margin of nine runs, that too required some batting pyrotechnics.
Byron Hatton-Lowe hammered 89 from just 46 deliveries, while Sam Seecharan hit a 20-ball 46 to hoist the young Outlaws to 204-6, before a strong death bowling display closed out the win.
As well as the batting highlights, Saif Ali and Mihir Patel were two of the standout bowlers in the early part of the programme, with the former twice claiming a three-wicket haul.
The other match against SSE (the only 50-over encounter of the tour) and back-to-back T20s against a Titans Colts bolstered by four professional players ended with Notts coming out on the wrong side of the result.
However, there was individual joy to be found in those games too, as Seecharan and Akand Gangotra registered half-centuries against Titans Colts and SSE respectively.
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