UNICORNS BOUNCE BACK WITH COMMANDING WIN AGAINST TEXAS SUPER KINGS

San Francisco Unicorns, 153/3 (Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 69*; Matt Short, 31) beat Texas Super Kings, 152/9 (Rilee Rossouw, 36; Peter Siddle, 36/3) by 7 wickets

The San Francisco Unicorns showed their class in their first win of the 2026 Major League Cricket season, comfortably chasing down a Texas Super Kings total limited by an impressive bowling display.

Winning the toss, Unicorns’ captain Matt Short put the local side into bat with Ghulam Masadar once again taking the new ball against the opening pair of Faf du Plessis and Saiteja Mukkamalla. A tidy opening over followed with six from it, before Peter Siddle made the early breakthrough with his first ball in the next, finding the edge of Mukkamalla (1) with debutant wicketkeeper Connor Esterhuizen demonstrating safe hands behind the stumps.

Brody Couch changed in immediately at the other end and had the same first ball luck, with du Plessis angling a catch to Hassan Khan for six. With the momentum strongly with the Bay Area side, their big name signing Ravichandran Ashwin came to the crease for his maiden over in orange, going for 15. Ghulam returned for his second over to take the third Super Kings wicket, and his first for the franchise when Milind Kumar gloved behind for 17.

A period of stability followed with Shubham Ranjane and Rilee Rossouw struggling to pick up the pace. Short broke the partnership in his first over, as Ranjane (7) holed out to Hammad Azam on the slog sweep, bringing Wiaan Moulder to the crease. Hassan Khan and Ashwin established a sustained spin attack in the middle overs, before Siddle landed the key wicket of Roussow (36) with a run out off his own bowling following a poor run call.

The Australian quick took the second of the over, finding Mulder’s (12) edge to leave a fresh pair exposed to an increasingly confident bowling attack. Short kept up the pressure, clean bowling Mohammad Mohsin for one.

Super Kings brought up their hundred in the 16th over. A brief spell of resistance, primarily from Hardus Viljoen was broken by the runout of the dangerous Donovan Ferreira (21), and then further damage was done when Amshi de Silva stepped on his wicket in the penultimate set of six. Couch closed the innings to leave the Texas side on what looked to be a below par 152-9.

The in-form Lhuan-dre Pretorius, fresher in the Texas sun without wicketkeeping duties, opened with Finn Allen, with the latter skying a Nandre Burger delivery in the first over with one to his name. This early stumble in the chase proved to be short-lived though, with captain Short building a strong partnership with Pretorius in the coming overs.

With regular boundaries and rotation of the strike, the Unicorns pair sustained the chase well above the required rate, moving through the gears to end the power play on 65/1. With the field out, the local side exerted some control, restricting the flow of boundaries in the middle overs, with Ferreira and Mulder offering the most resistance.

De Silva made a much-needed breakthrough for the home side, snaring Short on a tight LBW call for 31. Pretorius soon followed up with his second half century in as many days, while Esterhuizen offered some composure with the total well in sights, moving the Unicorns past 100 in the 11th over, before his compatriot Viljoen had him caught at mid-off by du Plessis for 20 on debut.

Sanjay Krishnamurthi kicked on against Mohsin in the next over, before managing the game home in the 18th with 13 balls to spare, leaving Pretorius on 69* and himself on 19* to give the Unicorns their first victory in MLC 2026.

San Francisco Unicorns now travel to the Bay Area to play their next set of fixtures in front of their home fans at the Oakland Coliseum, with the first match a repeat against Texas Super Kings on June 24.