Nottinghamshire County Age Group young guns Sam Seecharan, Travis Holland and Farhan Ahmed have guided Midlands to an unbeaten start at the ECB Bunbury Festival in Loughborough in their opening three games.

The festival sees four U15 representative sides - South and West, London and East, Midlands and North - pit their wits against each other in 20 and 50 over competitions over the course of a week. 

The Midlands emerged victorious by six wickets in their first fixture, a 20 over clash against London and East, chasing 147 within their allotted overs.

Opening the bowling, Holland catalysed a quick start for Midlands, snaring the wicket of Rahul Tangirala in the third over, and finishing with figures of 1-21. 

Ahmed, meanwhile, took two wickets bowling at the death, to stunt London and East’s progress. 

In pursuit of the target, a better than run-a-ball 15 from Holland laid the foundation for Midlands before captain Seecharan joined Sinel Gunarathne for a partnership worth 58, 36 of which were from the blade of the Notts man who faced 19 balls before his dismissal in the 11th over. 

Gunarathne’s eventual half-century and cameos from Yousaf Bin Naeem and Arush Buchake carried Midlands to victory with 2.3 overs to spare. 

Midlands’ second fixture saw a switch to the longer format, but no change in fortunes. 

Winning the toss, Seecharan again opted to bowl and was vindicated thanks to efforts from Theo Wylie, who claimed four wickets at the back end of the innings to restrict South and West to 261 all out, with two deliveries to spare.

Ahmed proved the pick of the bowlers, though, conceding just 36 runs through his ten overs, and picking up three key South and West middle order wickets, while Holland and Seecharan both went wicketless. 

Holland again got the Midlands off to a strong start with a 20 run contribution, but a top order axis of Buchake, Seecharan and Jack Home won the game for their side. 

Home remained unbeaten for his 62 as Midlands passed the target with 2.1 overs to spare, after Buchake (62) and Seecharan (52) had shared a fourth partnership worth 93. 

Midlands’ third fixture, a 50 over affair against London and East, was somewhat more convincing for the Midlands outfit, who cruised to a 127 run victory.

Batting first, strong starts littered the Midlands batting cards, but Amir Khan, Holland and Seecharan each pressed on for half-centuries.

Seecharan’s 59 came from just 35 deliveries to give his side the impetus heading into the back end, and the final total of 323 appeared sizable. 

It proved so when Ahmed was handed the ball in the 23rd over, picking up a wicket in his first over, before taking a wicket in five consecutive overs, ripping through London and East to finish with remarkable figures of 6-30 from his 10 overs. 

Wickets elsewhere were shared around to the bowling unit, and left London and East well short when dismissed in the 44th over.