RECORDS TUMBLE IN UNICORNS’ WINNING CHASE AGAINST WASHINGTON FREEDOM
San Francisco Unicorns, 193/2 (L Pretorius, 66; F Allen, 45) beat Washington Freedom 190/4 (A Gous, 83*; M Owen, 39), by 8 wickets
The San Francisco Unicorns put on a show for their home fans in an impressive chase against Washington Freedom, as Lhuan-dre Pretorius continued his fine form with a joint league record for the fastest fifty.
Fielding first, the Unicorns almost struck first ball when Brody Couch dropped a hanger from Mitchell Owen, with the batsman then going on to plunder 17 runs from Xavier Bartlett’s opening over. Two further catches went down in Ghulam Mudassar’s over, but Haris Rauf bowled Freedom captain Steve Smith next over to make the first breakthrough.
Andries Gous was the supporting act as Owen pushed Washington to 52/1 at the close of the powerplay. Mudassar then landed the prize wicket of Owen (39), toe-ending one to the safe hands of Finn Allen on the boundary. New man Jack Edwards added 17 before miscuing Matt Short, with Bartlett underneath it, bringing Nikhil Chaudhary to the middle.
The Unicorns stemmed the flow of runs through the middle overs until Andries Gous smashed three boundaries from Khan’s second set. Chaudhary followed with two maximums of his own in Rauf’s next over as the Freedom built up to what looked set to be a commanding total.
Couch broke the 59 run partnership, snaring Chaudhary (32), with Obus Pienaar joining Gous, who had moved past his half century an over before. The pair led Freedom to a total of 190/4 and the Unicorns needing 191 to win their third match of MLC 2026.
San Francisco Unicorns flew out of the blocks, with Lhuan-dre Pretorius continuing his impressive form hitting the equal fastest half century in MLC history off just 16 balls. Allen was equally destructive at the other end, helping the local side past one hundred in the sixth over before being caught off the bowling of Marco Jansen for 45 from 18 balls.
Matt Short entered the fray as the Unicorns set an all-time highest MLC powerplay score with 103 runs on the board, before Chaudhary’s pace off was the undoing of Pretorius, who went back to the dugout on 66 – his fourth fifty this season – having been caught by Owen.
Next man in Aaron Hardie (42*) took the Unicorns past the 150 with back-to-back boundaries off Lockie Ferguson, the pair then took 14 runs off Jansen’s 14th over, and the Unicorns’ captain Short (34*) put the chase to bed with a boundary with 29 balls remaining to take his side to the top of the table on net run rate.
Major League Cricket now moves to Los Angeles for its next leg, with San Francisco Unicorns playing the repeat fixture against Washington Freedom on 4 July.
