The Los Angeles Knight Riders took on the San Francisco Unicorns in match no 8 of Major League Cricket. Both the teams were looking to gain momentum in the tournament and this made the contest an exciting one.
SFU won the toss and chose to bat first on a pitch that looked ideal for batting. LAKR brought in their young speedster, Spencer Johnson and he started off on the right foot, by bowling tight lines and lengths upfront. LAKR’s reliable spin-duo picked wickets at regular intervals as they have done throughout the tournament. Zampa picked up 3 crucial wickets and broke the momentum of SFU batters. Skipper Sunil Narine, stood up with the ball yet again as he picked up 1 wicket by giving away just 34 runs in 4 overs on a flat wicket. The efforts of Finch and Stoinis took SFU to a total of 212.
The chase saw a rollicking start from Jason Roy, who was playing his first ever match of MLC. Roy smashed the bowlers all around the park and made the most out of the powerplay. Nitish Kumar played a great hand of 31 where he made sure that the boundaries kept coming. Dre-Russ, as he has been doing throughout the season, came in and made an impact for the Knights. The reliable duo of Russell & Narine forged a strong partnership and came tantalizingly close to the target. Yet, the target proved to be too good for them as LAKR faced a close defeat of 21 runs. There will be plenty of positives for the Knights to take forward in the next game, as they would look forward to making a strong comeback.
