144/10 (18.2)
CR : 7.85
176/8 (20.0)
CR : 8.80
San Francisco Unicorns won by 32 runs 🏆
Player of the Match
Romario Shepherd
2/1656(31)
18.2
W
X Bartlett to J Singh
THAT'S THAT! Short, slow and wide of off, Jasdeep lifts it to extra-cover where Matt Short runs back and dives to take an exceptional catch. A terrific all-round night for Short and the Unicorns as they beat the Seattle Orcas by 32 runs and make it to the play-offs!
J Singh 7(6)
c M Short b X Bartlett
4s/6s
1/0
SR
116.67
Over 19
Seattle Orcas 144/10
Jasdeep Singh7(6)
Obed McCoy0(0)
Xavier Bartlett1-37(2.2)
SFU won by 32 runs
09:13 AM IST, 10:43 PM Local Time: Another superb performance from the San Francisco Unicorns as they seal a 32-run victory over the Seattle Orcas to become the first side to qualify for the play-offs of MLC 2025. Matt Short, the star of the night with bat, ball and also in the field as he led from the front.
Chasing 177 for victory, the Orcas got a good start from Shayan Jahangir even as David Warner struggled for timing. They finished the Powerplay at 59/0 and looked on track but Romario Shepherd got the first breakthrough with Jahangir dragging on a length delivery in the 7th over. A couple of deliveries later, Matt Short trapped Warner in front with the southpaw failing while trying to play the reverse-sweep. Short ended the over with another wicket as he castled Kyle Mayers with a superb arm ball.
The skipper Heinrich Klaasen's poor form continued as he fell for just 7 after finding Romario Shepherd at deep mid-wicket off Haris Rauf's bowling. After a small partnership with Shimron Hetmyer, Sujit Nayak became Short's third victim as he skied an attempted big shot to long-off. The Orcas would have felt that the game was still not over but Rauf handed a double blow in the 16th over by dismissing both Gerald Coetzee and Hetmyer.
Then, Shepherd was back into the attack and he got the better of Harmeet Singh with help from Sanjay Krishnamurthi who took an excellent catch. Eventually, Rauf ended up with four wickets as he sent back Cameron Gannon while Xavier Bartlett finished off the match with the wicket of Jasdeep Singh.
Chasing 177 for victory, the Orcas got a good start from Shayan Jahangir even as David Warner struggled for timing. They finished the Powerplay at 59/0 and looked on track but Romario Shepherd got the first breakthrough with Jahangir dragging on a length delivery in the 7th over. A couple of deliveries later, Matt Short trapped Warner in front with the southpaw failing while trying to play the reverse-sweep. Short ended the over with another wicket as he castled Kyle Mayers with a superb arm ball.
The skipper Heinrich Klaasen's poor form continued as he fell for just 7 after finding Romario Shepherd at deep mid-wicket off Haris Rauf's bowling. After a small partnership with Shimron Hetmyer, Sujit Nayak became Short's third victim as he skied an attempted big shot to long-off. The Orcas would have felt that the game was still not over but Rauf handed a double blow in the 16th over by dismissing both Gerald Coetzee and Hetmyer.
Then, Shepherd was back into the attack and he got the better of Harmeet Singh with help from Sanjay Krishnamurthi who took an excellent catch. Eventually, Rauf ended up with four wickets as he sent back Cameron Gannon while Xavier Bartlett finished off the match with the wicket of Jasdeep Singh.
Heinrich Klaasen (Seattle Orcas Captain): Maybe 10-15 extra but we were still happy with the target. It is tough in this format to generate form. You have to play positively and hopefully the wheels will turn. We just keep finding fielders and keep finding ways to get out. As long as we are positive, hopefully, our fortunes will turn. I have heard about him, we hadn't seen him a lot and that is probably why he missed out initially. He has been aggressive and been giving us good starts. We are still very much in with a chance to qualify for the play-offs. Hopefully, the other teams lose and we win our matches as well.
Romario Shepherd has been named as the 'MVP of the Match'.
Romario Shepherd (MVP): At that stage, the coach told me to just hold a bit as there were overs left. It worked out in the end as I stayed till the end. Hitting sixes (Laughs), that is the best part of batting. Yes, I was trying to keep out the good deliveries and target the final overs. It is really good. The training and stuff have been going well. I am not surprised with our results.
Matt Short (San Francisco Unicorns Captain): "The boys are up and about. We have had a great start to the tournament. The last few games, we have played to the best of our ability but today we were probably a bit off. We lacked a proper partnership. Obviously, Romario was crucial with his knock. Credit to the bowlers who kept coming in and kept bowling good balls. We have got a couple of days off. Plenty of golf!
That is it from myself, Karthik Raj and my co-commentator Utsav as we wrap up the coverage of this fixture. A word of mention for our scorer, Ashok Dayma as well while we bid good-bye until next time.