105/5 (16.5)
CR : 6.24
104/10 (20.0)
CR : 5.20
San Francisco Unicorns won by 5 wickets 🏆
Player of the Match
Matthew Short
4/1721(20)
16.5
1
Tajinder Singh to Xavier Bartlett
That should do it for the Unicorns! Length ball on the stumps, turns back in, Bartlett hangs back and looks to flick the ball off the backfoot into the leg side. The ball catches the inside edge and trickles between his legs for a single to the right of leg slip. San Francisco Unicorns win by 5 wickets with 19 balls to spare.
Over 17
San Francisco Unicorns 105/5
Xavier Bartlett1(1)
Sanjay Krishnamurthi48(45)
Tajinder Singh1-7(0.5)
SFU won by 5 wickets
10:34 AM IST, 10:04 PM Local Time: In the end, a solid performance from the San Francisco Unicorns as they wrap up a five-wicket victory over MI New York with 19 balls to spare. Sanjay Krishnamurthi displayed maturity beyond his age to remain unbeaten on 48* (45) and take his team over the line.
Chasing 105 for victory, the Unicorns were rocked early as the Unicorns' debutant, Faisal Khan Ahmadzai dismissed Lhuan-dre Pretorius for a golden duck. Faisal got one more in the fourth over as Finn Allen pulled the ball to mid-on where Kieron Pollard took a good catch. The runs still came at a decent rate as Unicorns finished the Powerplay at 49/2.
However, Short fell immediately outside the Powerplay as Tristan Luus had him caught behind. Sanjay Krishnamurthi looked to bat with maturity but Luus struck again at the other end with Aaron Hardie also edging it again to Quinton de Kock. From there on, Sanjay and Hassan Khan steadied the ship with a 38-run partnership. Hassan fell with victory almost in sight as de Kock effected a smart stumping off Tajinder Singh's bowling. Eventually, an inside-edge from Xavier Bartlett completed an important win to help the Unicorns move to the top of the points table.
Earlier in the match, Xavier Bartlett set the tone for the Unicorns by producing a beauty to dismiss Quinton de Kock for a duck. In the very next over, Brody Couch got the better of Monank Patel with help of a cracking catch at slip from Finn Allen. MI New York lost two more wickets in the Powerplay in the form of Tajinder Singh and Shakib Al Hasan with Matt Short and Couch accounting for their wickets.
MINY were further reduced to 46/6 as the star duo of Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard being sent back by Haris Rauf and Short respectively. Corey Anderson tried to put up a fight but his 27-ball struggle eventually came to an end when Short had him stumped for his third scalp. Thereafter, Corbin Bosch and Tristan Luus added some useful runs until the former was trapped in front by Cocuh in the 18th over. The skipper Short came back to get rid of Tristan Luus while Aaron Hardie trapped Faisal Khan Ahmadzai to bowl out MINY for 104 on the last ball of the innings.
Chasing 105 for victory, the Unicorns were rocked early as the Unicorns' debutant, Faisal Khan Ahmadzai dismissed Lhuan-dre Pretorius for a golden duck. Faisal got one more in the fourth over as Finn Allen pulled the ball to mid-on where Kieron Pollard took a good catch. The runs still came at a decent rate as Unicorns finished the Powerplay at 49/2.
However, Short fell immediately outside the Powerplay as Tristan Luus had him caught behind. Sanjay Krishnamurthi looked to bat with maturity but Luus struck again at the other end with Aaron Hardie also edging it again to Quinton de Kock. From there on, Sanjay and Hassan Khan steadied the ship with a 38-run partnership. Hassan fell with victory almost in sight as de Kock effected a smart stumping off Tajinder Singh's bowling. Eventually, an inside-edge from Xavier Bartlett completed an important win to help the Unicorns move to the top of the points table.
Earlier in the match, Xavier Bartlett set the tone for the Unicorns by producing a beauty to dismiss Quinton de Kock for a duck. In the very next over, Brody Couch got the better of Monank Patel with help of a cracking catch at slip from Finn Allen. MI New York lost two more wickets in the Powerplay in the form of Tajinder Singh and Shakib Al Hasan with Matt Short and Couch accounting for their wickets.
MINY were further reduced to 46/6 as the star duo of Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard being sent back by Haris Rauf and Short respectively. Corey Anderson tried to put up a fight but his 27-ball struggle eventually came to an end when Short had him stumped for his third scalp. Thereafter, Corbin Bosch and Tristan Luus added some useful runs until the former was trapped in front by Cocuh in the 18th over. The skipper Short came back to get rid of Tristan Luus while Aaron Hardie trapped Faisal Khan Ahmadzai to bowl out MINY for 104 on the last ball of the innings.
Nicholas Pooran (MI New York Captain): "[On their total of 104 All Out] Definitely challenging for us. I think they bowled really well. The ball was behaving a little bit unfriendly to the batters there. We tried to stick out there but obviously it was a bit challenging. We got to something and we felt like we were in the game a bit there, but we know we had to bowl really well. It felt like under the lights, the ball skidded on a bit more and it got a bit easier to bat in the night and that is something we expected.
[On the bowling effort] I mean again, under lights it gets better to bat and credit to the boys that they came out with a lot of energy. Faisal and Tristan, they came out bowling pretty quick there and gave us something to stay in the game. It is really good for us to see that. The next week will be really important for us with 3 games in Dallas. This weekend was brilliant for us. Leaving LA with 2 wins out of 3 games was exceptional for us. We need to continue to build. We know that with bat in hand we have been digging and fighting. We also know, the best is yet to come."
[On the bowling effort] I mean again, under lights it gets better to bat and credit to the boys that they came out with a lot of energy. Faisal and Tristan, they came out bowling pretty quick there and gave us something to stay in the game. It is really good for us to see that. The next week will be really important for us with 3 games in Dallas. This weekend was brilliant for us. Leaving LA with 2 wins out of 3 games was exceptional for us. We need to continue to build. We know that with bat in hand we have been digging and fighting. We also know, the best is yet to come."
Sanjay Krishnamurthi gets the 'Power Hitter of the Match' award.
Haris Rauf gets the 'Play of the Day' award.
Matthew Short has been named as the 'MVP of the Match'.
Matthew Short (MVP and San Francisco Unicorns Captain): "[Taking 4 wickets despite spinners not getting much help at Pomona] Looking at the stats and data, a lot of the damage has been done by the quicks. Leading into the match, that was how we were leaning but there were a few match-ups for me. Being the captain, it worked out (smiles).
[Going to the top of the table in a tight competition] Any win is crucial. There are a lot of fluctuations in the table. We have seen that with each win of ours. It is nice to be at the top but could change at Dallas, who knows? Winning is good.
[Batting on a tricky wicket] Yeah, there is a lot of talk around the wicket being up and down. Our top-order if we play our natural game without thinking too much about the wicket, we will be fine. We did that and put away the loose balls while being unlucky with a few dismissals.
Sanjay (Krishnamurthi) showed his class and why he is one our better players. We know that we can rely on him. Important for him to get runs."
[Going to the top of the table in a tight competition] Any win is crucial. There are a lot of fluctuations in the table. We have seen that with each win of ours. It is nice to be at the top but could change at Dallas, who knows? Winning is good.
[Batting on a tricky wicket] Yeah, there is a lot of talk around the wicket being up and down. Our top-order if we play our natural game without thinking too much about the wicket, we will be fine. We did that and put away the loose balls while being unlucky with a few dismissals.
Sanjay (Krishnamurthi) showed his class and why he is one our better players. We know that we can rely on him. Important for him to get runs."
So, that is it from myself, Karthik Raj and my co-commentator, Manan as we wrap up the coverage of this fixture. A note of thanks to our scorer, Bishal Mandal as well. Do stay tuned to our coverage of several other cricket matches later in the day.