 2024 at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium.){kind=link}
Washington Freedom defeated San Francisco Unicorns by 96 runs in the finals of the Major League Cricket (MLC) 2024 at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium. Steve Smith and co. had a near-perfect campaign and had just 1 loss in their entire campaign.
Batting first, Washington Freedom put on a mammoth total of 207 runs in 20 overs and were in pole position throughout the game. Skipper Steve Smith was in his element and played a fabulous knock of 88 runs in just 52 deliveries. His innings was packed with 7 fours and 6 sixes and he had a good strike-rate of 169.23.
Glenn Maxwell played a cameo knock of 40 runs in 22 balls and made sure that his team gets powered to an imposing total at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium.
With the ball, Pat Cummins of San Francisco Unicorns bagged 2 wickets and his scalps included fellow Australian players Travis Head and Steve Smith.
Hassan Khan, Haris Rauf and Juanoy Drysdale bagged 1 wicket each in this epic and high-voltage finals.
San Francisco Unicornsβ batting department let them down
Chasing 208 runs in 120 balls, San Francisco Unicorns had lost the plot initially. They had lost 3 wickets in the powerplay and had dug a deep hole for themselves. It was impossible to bail themselves out from such a precarious situation and the writing was on the wall for San Francisco Unicorns.
Marco Jansen and Rachin Ravindra were fabulous with the white-cherry and they bagged 3 wickets each. Saurabh Netravalkar, who had a terrific tournament and finished as the highest wicket-taker, took 1 wicket in this game.
None of the batters of San Fransico Unicorns got going in the game and some big names in the form of Corey Anderson, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford and Josh Inglis, failed to live up to their expectations.
Washington Freedom had lost to MI New York in the Eliminator of the previous edition of the Major League Cricket and have staged the perfect comeback to win the tournament.
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