MLC 2023 | Unicorn Magic Prevails - San Francisco Triumphs Over LA Knight Riders by 21 Runs

San Francisco snatched a thrilling victory over the LA Knight Riders (Source: Twitter)

The San Francisco Unicorns dominated the LA Knight Riders by 21 runs on 19th of July in the last league match at the Grand Prairie stadium in Texas giving the knight Riders their 3rd consecutive loss in the tournament. The Unicorns innings started with a bang with openers Matthew Wade and Finn Allen taking the Knight Riders bowlers apart in the powerplay. With Wade’s incredible knock of 78 from 41 deliveries and the Quikfire 30+ scores from Marcus Stoinis and Corey Anderson made sure they get to a massive total of 212 runs. 

The LA Knight Riders had a decent start with Jason Roy and Unmukt Chand scoring above 10 runs per over in the powerplay. Despite the good start the Knight Riders started losing wickets at regular intervals in the middle overs bringing the asking rate up to 17.2 in the last 5 overs. Even with the valiant effort from Russell and Skipper Sunil Narine the match was still out of reach for the LA Knight Riders as they lost by 21 runs.

Unicorns vs Knight Riders - Skill Ratio Index Revealed

Skill Ratio Index (SRI) applied on SFU vs LAKR Match

Through this match we have seen a mix of some great and disappointing performances from one of the most brilliant players in T20 cricket. It's no surprise that Matthew Wade has the best SRI of 2.116 where he finally built his innings with the same natural aggressive approach he has in his game which was missing in the first two games. It was good to finally see Jason Roy in the tournament and to see him start it off with an explosive 45 from 21 balls and with a SRI of 1.044 in this match proved the fact that it was a mistake to leave him out for the first two games. 

The cameos from Stoinis and Anderson were also very effective for the Unicorns to reach a 200+ total and have above average SRI of 0.636 and 0.639. Even though Russell and Narine played good cameos, but due to not having an impact on the result have an average SRI. The worst SRI of the match was Shadab Khan with -1.123 but regardless of his performance with the bat came back into the match with the ball with an economic spell along with two wickets to bring back the game in the Unicorns favour. 

Even though the performance of Malhotra and Rossouw were disappointing which explains their below average index,It is the two talented openers in Unmukt Chand and Finn Allen who have had disappointing games in the league including this match where they showed some flash but couldn’t live up to their team’s expectations. It is also important for Aaron Finch to come back into the tournament as well who also has a below average SRI and despite being not out at the end still didn’t look comfortable at the crease and the drop catches in the second innings will not boost his confidence going forward in the league.

Conclusion

In conclusion this was another one sided contest which involved the Knight Riders for the third time in a row and will make their qualification chances even tougher. It has been the same old story for them with their bowlers going for runs at the death and the below par performances from their batsmen. Even in this game the Unicorns still showed a positive mindset and kept their nerve in the important stages which they did in their first game.