Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Brody Couch help Unicorns pull off thrilling chase

Brody Couch claimed three wickets and then produced a match-defining 14-ball cameo for 26 runs to help the San Francisco Unicorns win a thriller against the Seattle Orcas at the Oakland Coliseum. Set to chase 192, the Unicorns were powered by a Lhuan-dre Pretorius blitz of 87 (39) but regular wickets threatened to derail their chase until Couch's late assault saw them over the line with two wickets and two balls to spare.

Unicorns' chase got off to an inauspicious start when Finn Allen departed for a two-ball duck in the first over bowled by Orcas skipper Marcus Stoinis. Although Pretorius got going at the other end with a six and a four off yesterday's five-wicket hero Jasdeep Singh, the Unicorns found themselves reduced to 26 for 3 losing both Matthew Short and Sanjay Krisnamurthi in quick succession.

Pretorius though kept counter-attacking the Unicorns out of trouble, finding a six-four pair in each of the two remaining Powerplay overs. Even when the field spread, he kept finding his boundary options, racing away to a 23-ball half-century with Aaron Hardie giving him solid support at the other end. The pair put on 99 off just 48 deliveries before Hardie fell in the 12th over to Dasun Shanaka. The Orcas struck two more times to leave the Unicorns tottering at 136 for 6 with Pretorius gone for a scintillating 39-ball 87, a knock that included six sixes.

But Unicorns found an escape route almost immediately after as Xavier Bartlett helped plunder 17 off the very next over bowled by Harmeet Singh. The Unicorns needed 30 off the final four overs but the Orcas roared back through Cameron Gannon's 17th over, which brought the Unicorns just one run. Eight down, San Francisco needed 23 off the final two overs. Couch then found a six off Ottneil Baartman in the 19th over. After Haris Rauf turned over the strike with a single off the first ball of the final over, Couch managed to mow Shanaka over mid-wicket for a six and then found an outside-edged four to effectively close out the tense chase.

Orcas, who came close to winning on successive nights, were left to ultimately rue their batting collapse despite an excellent fight. As they had done yesterday, they ought to have scored in excess of 220 once they had reached 138 for 2 in the first 10 overs after opting to bat. Shayan Jahangir smashed 62 off 25 while Matthew Breetzke added 51 off just 29 to follow an equally destructive start from Tim Seifert, who hit four sixes in his 14-ball 32.

But a collapse of 8 for 42 in the second half of the innings, with Couch making the key strikes of Breetzke and Shimron Hetmyer, saw them bowled out with four balls to spare for an ultimately sub-par total.

Brief scores: Seattle Orcas 191 in 19.2 overs (Shayan Jahangir 62, Matthew Breetzke 51; Brody Couch 3-41, Matthew Short 2-12) lost to San Francisco Unicorns 192/8 in 19.4 overs (Lhuan-dre Pretorius 87, Brody Couch 26*; Marcus Stoinis 2-29) by two wickets.