Cricket Highlights, 15 July: MLC 2023 (Match 02) – MI New York vs San Francisco Unicorns

MI New York vs San Francisco Unicorns (Match 02) – Highlights

Aaron Finch’s San Francisco Unicorns succeeded in their first match in Major Cricket League (MLC) 2023 yesterday. The San Francisco Unicorns and MI New York flourished on the scoreboard with runs Friday night at Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas. Both teams scored 400+ runs. The San Francisco Unicorns won by just 22 runs in such a run-flooding match.

San Francisco Unicorns won the toss and batted first. Losing 5 wickets, they collected a big score of 215 runs. MI New York’s innings came to a standstill after scoring 193 runs for 5 wickets. As a result, Aaron Finch’s team registered their first win of the season by defeating the opponents by 22 runs.

Corey Anderson and Shadab Khan’s excellent batting style led the San Francisco Unicorns to this victory. Anderson played a devastating innings of 91 not out off 52 balls, with 4 fours and 7 sixes. As a result, he was selected as the player of the match. Besides, Shadab played a stormy innings of 61 runs off 30 balls. There were 4 fours and 5 sixes played by the Pakistani all-rounder.

However, the San Francisco Unicorns’ batters did not get off to a good start. They lost three wickets within the team’s 22 runs due to the aggressive bowling of the MI New York bowlers. In the 2nd over of the innings, wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade (5) was lbw-trapped by Proteas pacer Kagiso Rabada.

In the 3rd over, Marcus Stoinis was bowled by Trent Boult and returned to the dressing room coming at one down. In the next over, Rabada hit the camp of San Francisco Unicorns again. That time, his victim was opener Finn Allen (10). However, Captain Finch and Anderson tried to return to the match after this temporary collapse. They managed to collect 44 runs in 6 overs of power play.  

But in the 7th over of the innings, when spinner Sarabjit Ladda sent captain Finch back to the pavilion, San Francisco Unicorns went on the backfoot again. Shadab and Anderson took the team in the right direction when the team was struggling to settle into the match, losing the 4th wicket for the team’s 50 runs. These two put on a partnership of 129 runs for the 5th wicket.

Due to their great batting performance, San Francisco Unicorns could finally collect a challenging score of 215 runs. Apart from Anderson, Tajinder Dhillon remained unbeaten playing an innings of 18 runs off 10 balls. Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult took the maximum number of 2 wickets each for MI New York. Besides, Sarabjit Ladda took 1 wicket. 

Mi New York batsmen were under pressure from the beginning due to the controlled bowling of the bowlers of San Francisco Unicorns. As a result, they could not score more than 40 runs after losing 2 wickets in 6 overs of power play. Opener Dewald Brevis scored 32 runs off 25 balls. Where there were equal numbers of 2 fours and sixes. Besides, Nicholas Pooran scored 40 runs off 28 balls (2 fours and 3 sixes).

Skipper Kieron Pollard and Tim David were leading the team to victory after Pooran departed for the team’s 94 runs. Pollard returned to the pavilion scoring 48 off 27 balls, with 2 fours and 4 sixes. However, David’s unbeaten 53 runs (4 fours and 4 sixes) off 28 balls could not bring the team to the brink of victory despite the Aussie playing a whirlwind innings.  

In the end, San Francisco Unicorns left the field with a 22-run victory in controlled bowling by the bowlers. Liam Plunkett and Carmi le Roux took 2 wickets each for the team. Besides, Shadab Khan took 1 wicket.

MI New York vs San Francisco Unicorns Scoreboard

San Francisco Unicorns – 215/5 (20.0)

MI New York – 193/5 (20.0)

Result – San Francisco Unicorns won by 22 runs

Player of the match – Corey Anderson

Corey Anderson

MI New York vs San Francisco Unicorns Playing Xis