San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom showcased their batting prowess in a rain-affected hit-a-thon at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, ahead of their upcoming Qualifier match.
Sanjay Krishnamurthi struck an undefeated 79 off 42 balls, and Hasan Khan (32* off 11) and Josh Inglis (45 off 17) contributed significantly to the innings being over in 13.4 overs.
Top-ranked Freedom suffered their first loss of the MLC2024 season despite scoring 174 runs in less than 16 overs of batting before rain interrupted their batting session. After a long rain break, the match was called back, with a revised target of 177 for the Unicorns to reach in 14 overs.
In their opening partnership of 101 in 9.4 overs, Australians Steve Smith and Travis Head struck fast half-centuries for Freedom. It was interesting to note that Head was overshadowed by Smith’s extremely aggressive start, as he quickly reached 44 off 22 in the PowerPlay. Corey Anderson eventually removed Smith from the game as he was attempting to increase his record of five fours and four sixes by holing out to long-on.
Head then changed gears, hitting three sixes in four balls, and failed to make room to play a cut shot off Anderson, falling to a catch at backward point. Rachin Ravindra and Andries Gous made sure there was no decline in the scoring tempo, and Freedom scored 33 runs in the 13th and 14th overs. However, Ravindra’s runout was the consequence of a misunderstanding between the two. The rain worsened during the sixteenth over, forcing the players to leave the pitch for ninety minutes.
The Freedom innings was declared over when officials decided it was safe to resume play, and the Unicorns were ordered to chase 177 in 14 overs to win. The pursuit by San Francisco got off to the worst possible start as Akeal Hosein took out the highly effective Finn Allen with the opening ball of the inning. However, 21-year-old Krishnamurthi indicated he was going for the big score with a slog-swept six off the second ball he faced, and in the opening over, which ended with 15 runs, Jake Fraser-McGurk smashed two boundaries.
Dropped in the second over with 13 on the board, Krishnamurthi went on to make the most of his reprieve. Despite losing Fraser-McGurk in the process, he accelerated to 33 off 21 at the conclusion of the sixth over after hitting Netravalkar for two boundaries in the fourth over.
The youthful batsman reached his half-century off 28 balls, but it was Inglis’ hat-trick of sixes against Jack Edwards in a 26-run over that altered the course of the match in the ninth over. In the next over, he hit two more sixes off Andrew Tye before hitting a 17-ball 45. Two balls later, Tye also got rid of Sherfane Rutherford. The last 24 balls needed to be scored for the unicorns to reach 55.
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After destroying 22 off Tye’s third over, the 12th of the innings, Krishnamurthi and new batsman Hasan Khan reduced the score to 22 off 12. Netravalkar was hit for a six by Krishnamurthi, and then Hasan hit three consecutive boundaries. A diet of singles completed the outstanding run chase.
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