Cricket Highlights, 19 July: MLC 2023 (Match 08) – Los Angeles Knight Riders vs San Francisco Unicorns

Los Angeles Knight Riders vs San Francisco Unicorns (Match 08) – Highlights

Aaron Finch’s team San Francisco Unicorns has snapped up their second win in their 3rd match today. The San Francisco Unicorns and Los Angeles Knight Riders flooded runs Wednesday at Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas. The combined score of the two teams was 400 plus. In such a high-scoring match, San Francisco Unicorns won by 21 runs against Los Angeles Knight Riders.

San Francisco Unicorns have scored 200+ runs in two of the three matches they’ve played and won both of those matches. San Francisco Unicorns captain Finch decided to bat first after winning the toss in this match. They went down to bat and collected a big total of 212 runs after losing 7 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. 

Los Angeles Knight Riders’ innings stopped when San Francisco Unicorns’ bowlers scored 191 runs for 5 wickets in response. Wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade played a big role in this victory of the team. He played a devastating innings of 78 runs from 41 balls and was selected as the player of the match.

Initially, Wade and opener Finn Allen brought up a great start for the team. In 7.4 overs, the two picked up 88 runs on the scoreboard. When Allen returned to the dressing room with 20 runs, Aussie all-rounder Marcus Stoinis came to the wicket and started stormy batting. He played an amazing innings of 37 runs off 18 balls with the help of 3 fours and 3 sixes.  

Opener Wade returned to the pavilion an over after Stoinis’ departure. His innings of 78 runs off 41 balls had 7 fours and 5 sixes. Whereas Wade’s strike rate was 190.24. Then Corey Anderson took charge of the team. With an even number of 3 fours and sixes, he played a blistering innings of 39 runs off 20 balls.

At that time, Los Angeles Knight Riders spinner Adam Zampa reined in the pace of the scoring rate of San Francisco Unicorns. He did so by picking up two consecutive wickets in the last two balls of the 19th over. As a result, the innings of San Francisco Unicorns stopped at 212 runs after losing 7 wickets.  

In the end, captain Finch was unbeaten with 12 runs off 10 balls. Adam Zampa took the maximum number of 3 wickets with 41 runs in 4 overs for Los Angeles Knight Riders. Besides, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Ali Khan took 1 wicket each.

Los Angeles Knight Riders’ openers Jason Roy and Unmukt Chand got off to a good start chasing the big target. They picked up 55 runs in 4.5 overs. Where Jason played a stormy innings of 45 runs from 21 balls alone with the help of 4 fours and 4 sixes. After his departure, Unmukt also returned to the dressing room scoring 20 runs off 17 balls.  

Then the aggressive bowling of the San Francisco Unicorns bowlers didn’t let the middle-order of the Los Angeles Knight Riders score runs at a fast pace. Moreover, they keep losing wickets at regular intervals. Nitish Kumar returned to the pavilion with 31 off 23 balls, Rilee Rossouw made 8 runs off 8 balls, and Jaskaran Malhotra got 7 playing 8 balls.

All-rounder Russell and captain Narine brought the team back on track after losing the 5th wicket for the team’s 116 runs. These two put up a partnership of 75 runs for the 6th wicket. However, they were able to build big pairs but failed to score runs in maintaining the run rate. As a result, even though no more wickets fell, the team could not reach the port of victory in the end. 

Russell scored an unbeaten 42 off 26 balls (2 fours and 4 sixes) and Narine scored an unbeaten 28 off 17 balls (3 sixes). Shadab Khan took the highest number of 2 wickets and Haris Rauf, Corey Anderson, and Chaitanya Bishnoi took 1 each for San Francisco Unicorns.

Los Angeles Knight Riders vs San Francisco Unicorns Scoreboard

San Francisco Unicorns – 212/7 (20.0)

Los Angeles Knight Riders – 191/5 (20.0)

Result – San Francisco Unicorns won by 21 runs

Player of the match – Matthew Wade

Matthew Wade

Los Angeles Knight Riders vs San Francisco Unicorns Playing Xis