The defeat in the final league match of MLC 2025 meant San Francisco Unicorns finished third on the table, and will have to play the Eliminator
ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jul-2025Los Angeles Knight Riders notched up only their second win of MLC 2025, but did it at the worst possible time for San Francisco Unicorns, denying them a chance of making the top two on the points table.Unicorns gave the massive chase of 244 their best shot, but it was firstly too many runs, and secondly, they missed the services of Romario Shepherd with the bat, after he hared in off the boundary line to try and take a catch in the first half, hurt his ankle, and wasn’t available for the rest of the game.Sanjay Krishnamurthi kept Unicorns in the chase with a 40-ball 92•Sportzpics for MLCThe total of 676 runs scored in this, the last game of the league phase, was way ahead of the norm in Lauderhill – the top innings score in the other eight games had been 188 – and it was all thanks to Andre Fletcher, Alex Hales and Sherfane Rutherford in the first half and Sanjay Krishnamurthi in the second.For a while, Krishnamurthi threatened to eclipse Fletcher’s 118, getting to 92 off just 39 balls with seven fours and seven sixes by the end of the 14th over. At that stage, 68 were needed off five overs, the game having been reduced to a 19-overs-a-side affair after a rain delay more or less halfway into the Knight Riders innings. But Jason Holder sent Krishnamurthi back first ball of the 15th, and despite some lusty hitting from Xavier Bartlett, who hit Corne Dry for three sixes and a four in the 16th, Unicorns ran out of steam. Shepherd was missed a great deal.The chase had started badly for Unicorns, though. Karthik Gattepalli, the left-arm spinner on MLC debut, opened the bowling with Dominic Drakes and, after Drakes had removed Finn Allen in the first over, accounted for Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk in the second on his way to returns of 3 for 31.
A legendary start for Gattepalli, taking two wickets of SFU Skipper Matt Short and batting powerhouse Jake Fraser-McGurk in his first ever MLC over. pic.twitter.com/K6VbSNuxyV
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