UNICORNS FALL SHORT IN DEMANDING CHASE AGAINST LA KNIGHT RIDERS

San Francisco Unicorns, 233 all out (S Krishnamurthi, 92) lost to LA Knight Riders, 243/3 (A Fletcher, 118) by 11 runs (DLS method)

The San Francisco Unicorns fell just short in a momentous run chase of 244 against the LA Knight Riders in the final Cognizant 2025 Major League Cricket match in Florida, with the Bay Area side dropping into third place and taking a spot in the Eliminator game of the playoffs.

Having won a rare toss, the Unicorns elected to field first, noting their recent challenges when batting first at the Broward County Stadium. However, early scoring suggested the pitch was ripe for aggressive batting, with the Knight Riders hitting Xavier Bartlett for three boundaries first over, before plundering 29 runs off Ben Lister, on his Unicorns debut, in the last of the powerplay, leaving them on 76/0.

Deploying a pace off strategy slowed the rate, with Hassan Khan troubling the opening pair of Alex Hales and Andre Fletcher, before Karima Gore bounced back from consecutive boundaries to land Hales wicket, caught at long-on for 58. The game then came to a stuttered halt in the tenth over, with Romario Shepherd needing to be stretchered off having twisted his ankle in the field, before the south Florida skies opened to bring the covers on at the innings halfway mark with the Knight Riders on 112/1.

Following the delay and with overs now limited to 19 for both teams, Fletcher and Sherfane Rutherford kept the scoreboard ticking over at pace, moving the LA team past 150 in 14 overs. Gore misjudged a steep catch at long on to leave Fletcher to do more damage, and Lister then received his second warning for above waste height deliveries, needing Short to complete his  over.

Xavier Bartlett then broke the dangerous partnership, taking the wicket of a frustrated Rutherford for 49 after he hoisted a full toss to Sanjay Krishnamurthi at deep midwicket. The penultimate over from Couch went for 28 and brought up the Knight Riders’ 200 and Andre Fletcher’s century with a huge six off the last. Khan took the closing set, going for two sixes, but also taking the prize wicket of Fletcher from the final delivery, with the LA Knight Riders looking well-set for a rare win on an imposing 243/3.

The chase didn’t begin well for the Unicorns. Finn Allen was caught for four in the first over, with form batsman Matt Short gone for one next ball, caught smartly by Hales at mid-on. Jake Fraser-McGurk then headed back to the dugout for a golden duck a couple of balls later, stumped from a Karthik Gattepalli ball that turned sharply.

Hassan Khan and Sanjay Krishnamurthi put some respectability to the scoreline throughout the remainder of the powerplay, shifting the chase onto 57/3, navigating a few dropped catches in the process. But the pair continued to impress to offer some hope to Unicorns’ fans, only for Khan, 35 off 17, to tee one up to the perfectly-placed fielder at short third man when reverse sweeping.

Hammad Azam helped the Unicorns past the 100-mark in the tenth over, with the pair exponentially building a score that started to threaten an unlikely result. Krishnamurthi remained the key man in, going past his fifty with a fine fence clearance over long off, and with 30 balls remaining, 69 runs was the total required.

Jason Holder stopped Krishnamurthi’s destructive innings on 92 when he swatted a full-toss out to the substitute fielder, with Xavier Bartlett coming in and executing well on the task at hand, with Corne Dry’s third over going for 26.

Hammad Azam, now the main Unicorns hope, hit out for 38 in the 17th over, and then Karima Gore followed him back in the next, leaving 18 needed off the final six balls. Shadley van Schalkwyk defended well, going for just six runs and taking the two wickets of Bartlett for 27, and Lister for a duck off the last ball of the innings to secure the LA victory.

The loss drops San Francisco Unicorns, having ended the league phase on seven wins and three losses, into the Eliminator match where they’ll take on MI New York at the Grand Prairie Stadium, near Dallas, TX, on Wednesday, July 9. The LA Knight Riders end their MLC campaign with a win but rooted at the bottom of the table with two wins from their ten.