166/7 (19.4)
CR : 8.44
165/10 (20.0)
CR : 8.25
Washington Freedom won by 3 wickets 🏆
Player of the Match
Ben Dwarshuis
1/3238(16)*
Over 20
Washington Freedom 166/7
Ben Dwarshuis38(16)
Marco Jansen7(4)
Adam Milne0-27(3.4)
WF won by 3 wickets
5:45 AM IST, 7:15 PM Local Time: Another nerve-wracking thriller has gone in favour of Washington Freedom as they beat Texas Super Kings by three wickets to knock the Yellow Army out of the ongoing Major League Cricket! Faf du Plessis puts on a dull face as his TSK becomes the first team to bow out of the season! The Freedom grab two important points and move to the fourth spot with 10 points!
Earlier in the game, the Freedom won the toss and opted to bowl first on a dry wicket. Saitejja Mukkamalla and Faf du Plessis adapted well and slammed 93 runs for the opening wicket before Mitch Owen broke the partnership by dismissing the well-set Mukkamalla on 47 off 29 balls after he hit five sixes and mistimed one off a low full toss. Du Plessis got to his 84th T20 half-century and scored 61 off 41 balls, but TSK slipped badly in the second half of the innings with the Freedom bowlers executing the pace off deliveries nicely. From 130/3, TSK were bundled out for 165 in exactly 20 overs.
Mitch Owen, Nikhil Chaudhary, who bowled du Plessis with a beauty, and Rachin Ravindra claimed two wickets each, while Ben Dwarshuis and Saurabh Netravalkar took a wicket each to pull things back after the left-arm trio were taken to the cleaners in the powerplay by the TSK openers.
The dangerous Owen was dismissed early, thanks to Amshi de Silva's fantastic sliding catch at deep mid wicket off Akeal Hosein, but Steve Smith and Rachin hit some eye-catching strokes to rebuild with a 60-run partnership. Akeal again broke the stand by bowling cleverly and dismissed Rachin on 24 off 12 balls. Smith was looking good but fell on 46 while attempting to cut a wide delivery from Abhimanyu Lamba, smashing it straight to backward point. Andries Gous followed suit the very similar way.
TSK's bowlers - Akeal Hosein (2/26), Dian Forrester (2/38) and Lamba (2/39) - did well in the middle phase to pick up wickets at regular intervals using the slower balls into the pitch and drag the game back.
The Freedom needed 52 off 24 balls, and Dwarshuis and Obus Pienaar clubbed 22 runs, including 3 maximums off Lamba's final over to bring the equation down to 30 off 18 balls. Milne gave away 9 runs in the 18th over, while Amshi de Silva was hit for 11 runs, but he also removed Pienaar in the 19th over. Milne had 10 runs to defend in the last over, but Dwarshuis (38* off 16) and Marco Jansen (7* off 4) did the required job, holding their nerve and taking the side home with two balls to spare!
Earlier in the game, the Freedom won the toss and opted to bowl first on a dry wicket. Saitejja Mukkamalla and Faf du Plessis adapted well and slammed 93 runs for the opening wicket before Mitch Owen broke the partnership by dismissing the well-set Mukkamalla on 47 off 29 balls after he hit five sixes and mistimed one off a low full toss. Du Plessis got to his 84th T20 half-century and scored 61 off 41 balls, but TSK slipped badly in the second half of the innings with the Freedom bowlers executing the pace off deliveries nicely. From 130/3, TSK were bundled out for 165 in exactly 20 overs.
Mitch Owen, Nikhil Chaudhary, who bowled du Plessis with a beauty, and Rachin Ravindra claimed two wickets each, while Ben Dwarshuis and Saurabh Netravalkar took a wicket each to pull things back after the left-arm trio were taken to the cleaners in the powerplay by the TSK openers.
The dangerous Owen was dismissed early, thanks to Amshi de Silva's fantastic sliding catch at deep mid wicket off Akeal Hosein, but Steve Smith and Rachin hit some eye-catching strokes to rebuild with a 60-run partnership. Akeal again broke the stand by bowling cleverly and dismissed Rachin on 24 off 12 balls. Smith was looking good but fell on 46 while attempting to cut a wide delivery from Abhimanyu Lamba, smashing it straight to backward point. Andries Gous followed suit the very similar way.
TSK's bowlers - Akeal Hosein (2/26), Dian Forrester (2/38) and Lamba (2/39) - did well in the middle phase to pick up wickets at regular intervals using the slower balls into the pitch and drag the game back.
The Freedom needed 52 off 24 balls, and Dwarshuis and Obus Pienaar clubbed 22 runs, including 3 maximums off Lamba's final over to bring the equation down to 30 off 18 balls. Milne gave away 9 runs in the 18th over, while Amshi de Silva was hit for 11 runs, but he also removed Pienaar in the 19th over. Milne had 10 runs to defend in the last over, but Dwarshuis (38* off 16) and Marco Jansen (7* off 4) did the required job, holding their nerve and taking the side home with two balls to spare!
Faf du Plessis (Texas Super Kings Captain): "[On his feeling after getting eliminated] Disappointing! First of all, we got ourselves into a great batting position, and I thought we were not great in the last eight overs. We lost five wickets for 50 runs. So we felt that after halfway we were maybe 15 runs short, but then there was a great fight by the boys, putting in a lot of hard work in to take it to the last over. So close once again, the third game now where we take it to the last over, two balls to go and just not being able to finish it off.
[On the collapse] Yeah, just poor decision-making. I think on a wicket like that, it's really important to decide your intensity to build a partnership. New guys coming in, it always feels a little bit harder. So, as the in-batter, it felt like as soon as you get that partnership going, you could really put the pressure back on. But as soon as we did six, seven, eight or nine balls of putting that partnership back together, a wicket fell. And that happened about four times in a row. So it's difficult to get the momentum and put the bowlers under pressure. So yeah, definitely lost a bit around there."
[On the collapse] Yeah, just poor decision-making. I think on a wicket like that, it's really important to decide your intensity to build a partnership. New guys coming in, it always feels a little bit harder. So, as the in-batter, it felt like as soon as you get that partnership going, you could really put the pressure back on. But as soon as we did six, seven, eight or nine balls of putting that partnership back together, a wicket fell. And that happened about four times in a row. So it's difficult to get the momentum and put the bowlers under pressure. So yeah, definitely lost a bit around there."
Power Hitter of the Day: Steve Smith
Play of the Day: Amshi de Silva (for taking Mitch Owen's catch)
Most Valuable Player of the Match: Ben Dwarshuis
Ben Dwarshuis (MVP): "[WF were collapsing when we came to the crease. How did he turn it around?] I think it was a little bit earlier than where I normally go to the crease, so just trying to give myself a couple of balls to see what the wicket was doing. Just tried to give myself a couple of balls to see what the wicket was doing, and then you can just use that swing hard and hopefully connect with a few.
[On targeting a particular bowler from the Race Course End] Just felt like it was the easier end to target. Obviously, the downwind and Obus hit a nice six as well, so his short side as well. So, I felt like that was the over that we could sort of bring the rate down to semi-controllable, try and take our medicine off Milne, and then go again from that end. So, we had a little plan out there, and it was nice that it worked.
[How big is this win?] It's massive. It sort of keeps our hopes alive. And we'll be watching eagerly tonight to see who wins this one. And where that puts us. So, it's tight there. It sort of changes every game. So, we'll turn up tomorrow and hopefully win again."
[On targeting a particular bowler from the Race Course End] Just felt like it was the easier end to target. Obviously, the downwind and Obus hit a nice six as well, so his short side as well. So, I felt like that was the over that we could sort of bring the rate down to semi-controllable, try and take our medicine off Milne, and then go again from that end. So, we had a little plan out there, and it was nice that it worked.
[How big is this win?] It's massive. It sort of keeps our hopes alive. And we'll be watching eagerly tonight to see who wins this one. And where that puts us. So, it's tight there. It sort of changes every game. So, we'll turn up tomorrow and hopefully win again."
Steve Smith (Washington Freedom Captain): "[Not quite sure how you won that, but you scrambled over the line. How did you do it at the end there?] You gotta be confident all the way through. You know, I've seen Benny Dwarshuis play for a while now, and his batting's come a long way. He's got a lot of power. He can go from ball one. And the way he was able to just wait for his balls tonight and get the job done was great to see. But I thought our bowlers did a really good job as well to restrict them to what we did. They got off to a decent start, but I think we might have got 9 for 50 or something at the back end there, with our spinners doing the job. That was a good performance.
[That kind of batting depth you're referring to there, Jansen all the way down at nine, that's something you pride yourselves on, and you really had that belief all the way right to the end] It was getting trickier and trickier the slower it got, and we got some strong guys there. They can still hit the ball when it's slow like that, so they did a really good job, and it's nice to get over the line.
[On his knock] It was nice to hit a couple out of the middle. It was a little bit slower this wicket than what we've probably played on when we were here previously. It was nice to hit a couple in the middle and contribute.
[Final question, what about this points table? It's unbelievably tight still. TSK now, because of this defeat, are out, but will you be watching keenly this evening and head to your game tomorrow?] Yeah, I think it's a big game for us tonight watching this, so we'll have a look and hopefully the result swings in the right way and gets us through."
[That kind of batting depth you're referring to there, Jansen all the way down at nine, that's something you pride yourselves on, and you really had that belief all the way right to the end] It was getting trickier and trickier the slower it got, and we got some strong guys there. They can still hit the ball when it's slow like that, so they did a really good job, and it's nice to get over the line.
[On his knock] It was nice to hit a couple out of the middle. It was a little bit slower this wicket than what we've probably played on when we were here previously. It was nice to hit a couple in the middle and contribute.
[Final question, what about this points table? It's unbelievably tight still. TSK now, because of this defeat, are out, but will you be watching keenly this evening and head to your game tomorrow?] Yeah, I think it's a big game for us tonight watching this, so we'll have a look and hopefully the result swings in the right way and gets us through."
That is it from this game! With this defeat, Texas Super Kings become the first team in this MLC to go home! Washington Freedom hold their nerve to gain two points and move to the fourth spot on the table! Switch tabs to read the action from the Seattle Orcas vs San Francisco Unicorns game! A win for SFU will confirm the four teams going through to the next round!
For now, this is me AkshayaKrishna Polya, signing off on behalf of our scorer Bishal Mandal. We will meet again. Until then, it's cheers!
For now, this is me AkshayaKrishna Polya, signing off on behalf of our scorer Bishal Mandal. We will meet again. Until then, it's cheers!