Washington Freedom successfully defended 103 runs against the San Francisco Unicorns courtesy of an impressive six-wicket haul by Saurabh Netravalkar in the ongoing Major League Cricket (MLC) 2023. A former India U19 bowler with KL Rahul and Jaydev Unadkat, Netravalkar disposed of the top and bottom order in his 3.1 overs.
The 31-year-old is a tall left-arm fast bowler. He took 30 wickets in six games in the Cooch Behar Trophy in 2008-09 and was also the leading wicket-taker with eight scalps in the U19 tri-nation tournament in South Africa just before the World Cup in New Zealand.
The Unicorns never settled into the crease and Netravalkar struck early in the fourth over itself. He got the wicket of Marcus Stoinis (3), uprooting his middle wicket with a brilliant bowl. On the sixth ball of the same over, Netravalkar struck again to send Shadab Khan back to the pavilion for a duck.
Corey Anderson (34) and skipper Aaron Finch (14) tried their best to bring the team back into the game but timely strikes from Marco Jansen and Akeal Hosein ended their stay at the crease.
Netravalkar then turned on the heat as the match came to a close. In all, he also picked up the wickets of Matthew Wade, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Liam Plunkett and Haris Rauf.
Earlier, the Unicorns captain Aaron Finch won the toss and chose to bow first. Pakistani fast bowler Haris Rauf proved the decision right with three wickets, reducing their opponents to 33 for four.
Rauf took the wickets of Andries Gous (23), Mukhtar Ahmed (1) and Glenn Phillips (0). Matthew Short was run out after scoring five runs. Then, Captain Moises Henriques and Obus Pienaar shared a 40-run partnership for the fifth wicket as both of them took the score to 73 runs.
In the death overs, Marco Jansen and Dan Piedt added important runs and took the team to 133. Jansen scored 19 runs in 15 balls with two fours, while Piedt scored 12 runs in 10 balls with one four. For the Unicorns, Rauf took three wickets while conceding 20 runs while Plunkett took two wickets while conceding 24 runs.
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