In the Grand Prairie Stadium at Dallas on Friday, Washington Freedom beat Seattle Orcas by five wickets and topped Major League Cricket 2024 standings comfortably.
Washington with two wins, a no-result in three games now have five points which is two ahead of Texas Super Kings, who are in second position of the table. Seattle remains at the bottom with thesecond loss of the season.
As it happened: Washington Freedom vs Seattle Orcas
Washington won the toss and chose to field first; its bowlers led by pacers Lockie Ferguson and Saurabh Netravalkar bundled out Seattle for a meagre 124 in 19.4 overs. After that Washington’s team did not respond in kind as they chased down the target before even one ball penetrated their defences to end up with 18.2 overs left to play.
Three wickets were lost during powerplay and after 9.1 overs, Washington was struggling at 64/5. However, Lahiru Milantha (33* off30) and Obus Pienaar (31* off30) formed an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership adding 63 runs thereby ensuring a win for their side.
“We did not get off to flier and take it deep from top order. The run-rate was never out of reach and it is all about taking it deep and I think Pienaar and Milantha played some really smart cricket there,” said Steve Smith captain of Washington freedom.
Referring to a defeat which made them remain third from bottom Heinrich Klaasen said “I think we lost game in backend with bat.” While admitting that bowlings were good initially he still added “ but we didn’t have enough on board”Also he mentioned what his team needs most now “We are lacking that one guy that keeps on going at the backend, and that is something that will give the bowlers that extra cushion. Proud of the bowlers, they did what they needed to do and like I said not enough runs on the board and we need to get that right”.
Washington’s Ferguson (4-26)and Netravalkar(3-18) were the pick of the bowlers in their respective spells of 4 overs and 3.4 overs.For his outstanding performance, Ferguson was awarded ‘Player of the Match’.
“Good start to the campaign, bowling unit is going well and everyone is pitching in. There was a little bit in it for the bowlers, it’s about finding your lengths and I think the boys have done that well,” said Ferguson.
After this match Washington Freedom appears as a front-runner for upcoming season while Seattle Orcas who will regroup themselves as well as address their batting problems in forthcoming matches.
