Lhuan-dre Pretorius's carnage in chase carries Unicorns to top spot

San Francisco Unicorns jumped to the top spot in the MLC 2026 standings with a crushing defeat of Washington Freedom which gave them a significant Net Run Rate boost to leapfrog the Seattle Orcas who had provisionally gone top with a win in Sunday's first game.

Powered by a blistering opening stand between Lhuan-dre Pretorius (66 off 26) and Finn Allen (45 off 18), the Unicorns chased down Freedom's 190 in just 15.1 overs.

There was more life on the wicket for the bowlers than the final margin of Unicorns' victory suggested. Freedom had opted to bat on it and at the half-way point of the game, their top-scorer Andries Gous, who had batted 50 balls for his unbeaten 83, expressed happiness at having taken his team to 190 on what was a slow and two-paced pitch. Of course, all of the aforementioned assistance was drawn bowling cutters on the in-between, good length.

But Freedom's bowlers were guilty of dishing out slot balls with alarming frequency. And that meant Pretorius and Allen simply bolted off the blocks. The former struck a hat-trick of sixes off Amila Aponso to get the chase going with a 24-run first over. Not to be left behind, Allen took down Lockie Ferguson for 18 in the next. In 2.4 overs, the pair had brought up the team's 50. Before the Powerplay ended, Pretorius had got himself a 16-ball half-century while Allen fell for an 18-ball 45 after having added 102 runs for the first wicket.

Freedom didn't help their cause in the field either, dropping as many as three straightforward catches. That combined with the bowling generosity meant the rest of the chase had a processional feel to it. Pretorius fell to Nikhil Chaudhary after hitting seven sixes and three fours in his 26-ball stay. Matt Short then dropped anchor while Aaron Hardie kept the big hits coming from the other end to ensure the team got over the line early to give their NRR a substantial boost.

Earlier in the game, Mitchell Owen was dropped off the first ball of the game and made the Unicorns pay by hitting the next three balls for two fours and a six. His captain and opening partner Steve Smith was also reprieved but struggled for any kind of rhythm before walking across his stumps to scoop Haris Rauf only to lose his leg stump. Owen fell straight after a 52-run Powerplay for a 20-ball 39 but Gous held the innings together with a steady knock.

Gous got to his fifty off 38 balls before blasting 33 off the next 12. Nikhil Chaudhary upped the ante at the death with his smart boundary-finding ability. He was the aggressor in a 59-run stand with Gous, scoring 32 off 19 balls. That partnership fired Freedom to 190, a total they thought would be enough, only to be emphatically proved wrong inside six overs of the next innings.

Brief scores:Washington Freedom 190/4 in 20 overs (Andries Gous 83*, Mitchell Owen 39; Ghulam Mudassar 1-29) lost to San Francisco Unicorns 193/2 in 15.1 overs (Lhuan-dre Pretorius 66, Finn Allen 45; Nikhil Chaudhary 1-29) by eight wickets