Credit: MLC/X
Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk turned out to be the star with the bat as San Francisco Unicorns defeated LA Knight Riders by 32 runs in match number three of the Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 at Oakland Coliseum in California. McGurk scored a fiery 88(38) runs as the Unicorns posted 219/8 in their 20 overs. In reply, Knight Riders were bowled out for 187 runs in 19.5 overs.
Coming to bat first after losing the toss, San Francisco lost their first wicket at the score of five runs in 1.2 overs. After that, Finn Allen and Jake Fraser-McGurk put up a partnership of 121 runs for the second wicket. Allen got out after scoring 52(27) runs with five fours and four sixes, while McGurk smashed 88 runs off just 38 balls hitting two fours and 11 sixes. He reached his fifty in just 21 balls with a six against Sunil Narine in the first ball of the ninth over. After that, Cooper Connolly (20* off 18) and Haris Rauf (16* off 7) gave finishing touches as SF Unicorns crossed 210 runs.
Xavier Barlett scalps 4 wickets as San Francisco Unicorns register convincing win
Chasing the winning target, LA Knight Riders lost both their openers under four overs at the scorer of 33 runs. Unmukt Chand and Nitish Kumar added 46 runs for the third wicket. Nitish got out after scoring 18(12) runs while Unmukt scored 53 runs off 32 balls hitting four fours and four sixes. After that, Knight Riders kept losing wickets at regular intervals with Xavier Barlett registering a four-wicket haul.
Matthew Thomp also scored 41(31) while skipper Sunil Narine scored a quickfire 27(13) runs. However, they couldn’t take their team down the line as LA Knight Riders got bowled with just one ball remaining in the match. Xavier Barlett registered figures of 4/28 in 3.5 overs. Apart from that Haris Rauf also took four wickets, while Hassan Khan and Brody Couch scalped a wicket each.
