Courtesy: MLC/USA Cricket
The opening match of the Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 witnessed the batting brilliance of New Zealand opener Finn Allen, who played a 151-run knock off just 51 for San Francisco Unicorns against the reigning champions Washington Freedom. His exceptional batting display guided Unicorns to a massive 123-run win. Winning the toss, Freedom captain Glenn Maxwell elected to field first and the Aussie’s decision turned out to be disastrous as Allen stood tall against bowlers and played the knock which resembles to Brendon McCullum’s 158-run innings for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the inaugural game of the Indian Premier League in 2008.
The right-handed batter took Washington’s bowling attack to the cleaners and notched up a 34-ball hundred. With this ton, he became the second-fastest run-getter in a T20 league, following Chris Gayle’s 30 ball century for RCB against Pune Warriors India in IPL 2013. The New Zealand player's innings was also studded with 19 maximums which is the most by any batter in a T20 contest. He shattered the joint feat of 18 sixes held by Chris Gayle for Rangpur Riders against Dhaka Dynamites in the Bangladesh Premier League 2017 and Sahil Chauhan for Estonia against Cyprus in 2024.
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Finn Allen registers fastest to 150 record to his name in T20 cricket
Following his knock for Unicorns, Allen also broke into record books as the batter with the fastest 150 runs. He consumed 49 balls to complete his 150 runs and bettered the feat of South Africa batter Dewald Brevis’ 52-ball 150 for Titans against Knights in October 2022.
Allen’s innings also helped Unicorns to post a heavy total of 269/5 in their 20 overs, which has now become the biggest team score in MLC. Earlier, San Francisco’s 215/5 against MI New York in 2023 was the latest team total in the league that started a couple of years ago.
