On Thursday, in an enthralling Major League Cricket 2024 match which went down to the Grand Prairie Stadium wire, San Francisco Unicorns held off MI New York by three runs.
The victory in the cliffhanger against the reigning champions meant San Francisco Unicorns became only the second team after Washington Freedom to qualify for the playoffs.
San Francisco Unicorns batted first having won the toss but they were restricted to only 148/7 from their 20 overs.
Unicorns had slumped to 33/5 before skipper Corey Anderson and Hassan Khan (44 off 35) added 87 runs together bringing them back into contention.
Anderson played a vital role in getting his team out of trouble by remaining unbeaten on 59 off just 37 deliveries.
In this contest, Nosthush Kenjige and Trent Boult claimed two wickets apiece for MI New York while Romario Shepherd and Rashid Khan shared one each.
MI New York lost Ruben Clinton for a duck. However, Dewald Brevis and Nicholas Pooran put together a partnership of seventy-seven for the second wicket.
Brevis scored rapidly fifty six from thirty six balls. A wicket of Brevis halted MI New York’s scoring rate and they also kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Brody Couch and Matthew Short took five wickets between them as Haris Rauf and Hassan Khan claimed one apiece.
Rashid Khan and Heath Richards thrashed at it with their bats later but could not take their side over the line.
Haris Rauf bowled the last over where MI New York required twenty runs for a win .
Six was hit by Heath Richards from penultimate ball of innings making it four needed on final delivery.
However, Haris Rauf reduced Heath Richards lbw with full delivery pitched on off stump with him attempting reverse sweep. But Richards didn’t review and it went through to the keeper, missed the bat from the pad and passed for four.
The Unicorns won by 3 runs as Richards did not review.
In points table, MI New York slumped to fourth defeat of the season with only a match in hand while Unicorns moved up to second position.
For a must win game against Knight Riders both on the brink of elimination, MI New York will also have to be consecutively large.
