The Los Angeles Knight Riders took on Washington Freedom in match 9 of the Major League Cricket at Church Street Park in North Carolina. Both the teams were fighting hard for a win in this crucial stage of the tournament. With both the sides being balanced and raring to go, this game promised to be an exciting one.
Washington Freedom won the toss and chose to bowl first. LAKR lost a few early wickets and then the duo of Rossouw & Russell forged a brilliant partnership and started to rebuild the innings. Rossouw looked in great touch as he smashed the bowlers all around the park. Dre-Russ continued his rich vein of form by scoring an astonishing 70 runs of just 37 balls with 6 monstrous sixes. The partnership of both these batters, helped LAKR set a target of 176 for Washington Freedom.
The power-play wasn’t an ideal one for the Knights as the WF batters were looking to take the game away from LAKR. The bowlers showed some fight and picked a couple of wickets and took away the momentum the WF batters had. Skipper Sunil Narine, did his usual thing where he just gave away 20 runs, bowled at an economy of just 5 and picked up a wicket. The LAKR bowlers fought hard, yet Washington Freedom reached the target. LAKR will hold their heads up high and will be looking forward to the final game of the season, eager to finish with a sweet victory.
LAKR 175/7 in 20 Ov (Russell 70* off 37, Rossouw 41 off 30; Moises Henriques 3/26 in 3 overs, Marco Jansen 2/29 in 4 overs) lost to WF 177/4 in 18.1 Ov (Matthew Short 43 off 35, Andries Gous 40 off 15; Narine 1/20 in 4 overs Zampa 1/36 in 4 overs) by 6 wickets.
