San Francisco Unicorns began their campaign in the second season of Major League Cricket (MLC) with an impressive six-wicket win over Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR) at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Sunday.
It was first defeat of this edition for the Knight Riders, who began their campaign with a comeback win over Texas Super Kings in the tournament opener. However, they were no match for the much superior show put up by the Unicorns.
After being put in to bat, none of the LAKR batsmen could kick on after getting in, and it was only because of West Indian Andre Russell's cameo of 25-ball 40 not out that they could put up 165 for 6 on the board.
Opener Jason Roy (26), Shakib Al Hasan (35), Nitish Kumar (20) and David Miller (24) all got starts but couldn't convert it into anything substantial.
Brody Couch (2 for 24) and Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf (2 for 38) led the bowling charts for the Unicorns after their skipper Corey Anderson decided to bowl first having won the toss.
San Francisco's run-chase was led by their New Zealand opener Finn Allen (63 off 37 balls) and Matthew Short (58 off 26) as the pair added 116 runs for the second wicket after young Australian sensation James Fraser-McGurk (9) was removed early by Spencer Johnson who ended with figures of 3 for 36.
However, Johnson didn't receive much help from the rest of the LAKR bowling unit, with veteran Windies spinner Sunil Narine (1/39) being the only other wicket-taker.
The Unicorns, thus, faced little difficult and cruised past the target in 15.2 overs.
"It was good, probably took a bit long to figure out the pace of the wicket. I and Jake went too hard early. The way Shorty (Matthew Short) came out and took pressure off me was good," said 'Player of the Match' Allen.
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