Major League Cricket: Matthew Short, Andries Gous Shine as Washington Freedom Beat Los Angeles Knight Riders

The Washington Freedom moved to the third spot on the points table after taking down Los Angeles Knight Riders by six wickets in Major League Cricket at Church Street Park, Morrisville on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Knight Riders bowed out of the playoffs race after suffering their fourth consecutive loss in the competition. The Washington Freedom restricted the Knight Riders to 175/7 before chasing down their target in 18.1 overs.

Matthew Short got the Washington Freedom off to the perfect start as he smashed two boundaries and a six in the very first over. Andries Gous backed up his opening partner with three boundaries and a six and took Washington Freedom’s score to 34/0 in two overs. The opening batters struck a few more boundaries as Washington Freedom were comfortably placed at 64/0 in five overs.

Andries Gous fell to Spencer Johnson for 40 runs off 15 balls in the sixth over, but Mukhtar Ahmed kept the momentum on Washington Freedom’s side with two consecutive boundaries off Adam Zampa’s bowling in the eighth over. Thereafter, the Washington Freedom lost Mukhtar Ahmed, Matthew Short and Glenn Phillips in quick succession but the team was batting at a brilliant run rate.

Eventually, Captain Moises Henriques and Obus Pienaar strung an unbeaten 41-run partnership to take their team over the line with 11 balls to spare.

Earlier in the day, Washington Freedom won the toss and put the Los Angeles Knight Riders into bat. Saurabh Netravalkar found the first breakthrough for Washington Freedom when he trapped Jason Roy LBW in the fourth over. Soon after, Henriques dismissed Nitish Kumar and Unmukt Chand in the same over as the Knight Riders were in deep trouble at 38/3.

Jaskaran Malhotra tried to get his innings going, but he was bowled out by Akeal Hosein for 12 runs off 10 balls in the eleventh over. Thereafter, Rilee Rossouw and Andre Russell put up a magnificent stand of 86 runs from 47 balls to take the Knight Riders to 154/5 in 18.1 overs. Rossouw was dismissed by Marco Jansen for 41 runs off 30 balls in the nineteenth over, but Russell remained unbeaten on 70 runs off 37 balls. He struck six fours and six maximums to help the Knight Riders post a formidable total in their 20 overs.

Brief Scores: Washington Freedom 177/4 (Matthew Short 43, Andries Gous 40, Sunil Narine 1/20) beat Los Angeles Knight Riders 175/7 (Andre Russell 70*, Rilee Rossouw 41, Moises Henriques 3/26)