After a commendable performance with the bat, Washington Freedom displayed their dominance with the ball as well and made sure that they became the second team to lift the Major League Cricket trophy by defeating San Francisco Unicorns by 96 runs at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Sunday.
San Francisco Unicorns’ innings came to an end with Marco Jansen and Rachin Ravindra picking up 3 wickets each. Andrew Tye also chipped in with two wickets in one over. Earlier, Glenn Maxwell (22-ball-40) and captain Steven Smith (52-ball-88) powered Washington Freedom to 207/5 against San Francisco Unicorns after being put into bat. Smith in particular was amazing and added another 83 off only 40 balls for the fourth wicket alongside Maxwell.
Chasing 208, Jake Fraser-McGurk started poorly as he departed early while trying to say his first prayer. But both Sanjay Krishnamurthy and Finn Allen did not last long enough as they were dismissed within one over of each other. And similarly Sherfane Rutherford, Josh Inglis, Corey Anderson all failed to impress or make any notable contribution before they were run out hitting irresponsibly. These three could only gather 23 runs on the scorecard from their bats.
The game slipped from their hands completely during which time it went from 30/1 in 3.4 overs to 53/6 in just8.3 overs. Pat Cummins at least hit a few lusty blows together with Hassan Khan but their side had already lost the match. This happened right before bowlers tried swinging their bats but got cleaned up for111 runs in just16 overs.
Early wicket for Washington Freedom there from Marco Jansen was ideal! Then Saurabh Netravalkar also took down another one who followed soonest. Jansen also, dismissed the dangerous Finn Allen to leave his team in a good position.
Also, Glenn Maxwell, Rachin Ravindra and Andrew Tye struck together to take four wickets in three overs. It was also left with Hassan Khan’s wicket while Marco Jansen performed the rest of the damage control for his side at the end of the innings.
Ravindra was instrumental for taking 3-23 in four overs alongside Marco Jansen who had figures of 3-28 in four overs as well. Andrew Tye took two while Glenn Maxwell and Saurabh Netravalkar who is the leading wicket-taker this season got one each towards their season’s total.
Steven Smith started off slowly before he exploded, smashing bowlers all over the ground for 88 runs off just 52 balls. He first put together an opening stand of 47 with; Gous followed by another partnership worth 36 with Maxwell later on. This time around Smith and Maxwell scored 83 from just39 balls.
215 could have been possible, but Smith’s dismissal was followed by Maxwell’s at death overs stage so they did not get there. And then it was Mukhtar Ahmed who gave them a push that eventually helped them go past the mark of 200-run during this final showdown game.
One of the bowlers from San Francisco Unicorns was Corey Anderson, and he wouldn’t have expected to chase this many runs when he decided to bowl first after winning the toss. However, except for Carmi le Roux who went wicketless, everyone else claimed a wicket in their name while Pat Cummins had the economical bowling rate less than 10 and also took two wickets.
