MLC 2025: Matt Short San Francisco helps Unicorn to continue an unbeaten line; Storm in playoffs | Cricket news
San Francisco Unicorn became the first team to move forward in the playoffs of MLC 2025 by defeating Seattle Orarkas by 32 runs in Dallas on Wednesday night. They are unbeaten in this competition, have won all six matches so far and have also strengthened their position on top of the points table. The orkas suffered its fifth direct defeat this season and continued to sit downwards.Along with the all-rounds of Captain Matthew Short and Romario Shepherd, Haris Rauf had a four-wicket race for Unicorn in one day when he had to win mini-bottles.To bat first, Unicorn lost Finn Alan in the second over. But Jake Fraser-Mackgurk and Short placed 68 runs at second-cicat stand, which not only stabilized the innings, but also gave them impetus. McGark fell in eighth place for a well-made 21-gent 34 for left-arm spinner Harmet Singh and triggers a collapse as Unicorn slipped from 86 to 6 to 103 for 6.
Shepherd then exploded four sixes and four fours off 31 balls, with Unicorn in 176 for 8. Gerald Koetzi also pasted 34 for 34, including the major middle-order wickets. However, this late attack proved to be more than enough, once again a young woman refused to win despite Chase’s bright start with the orkas.Orkas scored 29 runs in the first two overs, with Shayan Jahangir, who looked impressive in his knock. He played a series of eyes -catching shots to score 40 off just 22 balls. However, Shepherd gave success by rejecting Jahangir in the seventh over.In the following overs, both David Warner and Kyle Mayors were removed and killed twice. Orkas could never recover from these early failures and continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. Shimron Hetmyer and Sujit Nayak attempted to rebuild the innings, but only briefly. Rauf, who had previously rejected Henriqus Klassen, wrapped the innings by removing Koetzi and Hetmyer in the 16th over and removing Cameron Ganon in 18th, ended with 4 figures for 32.Brief score San Francisco Unicorn: 8 for 176 (Rowmario Shepherd 56, Matthew Short 52; Harmeet Singh 3-22, Gerald Koetzi 3-34) Seattle Orcas: 144 All Out (Shayan Jahangir 40; Haris Rauf 4-32, Short 3-12)
