San Francisco Unicorns vs Los Angeles Knight Riders, 26th Match, Major League Cricket 2026 - CommentarySFU vs LAKR, 26th Match, Major League Cricket 2026 - Commentary
Los Angeles Knight Riders won by 11 runs
LAKR
184/7(20)
SFU
173(19.1)
PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Match Videos
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That's all from this contest. See you again tomorrow!
Holder | Knight Riders captain and MVP: We know the power they possess at the top. Finn, Pretorius and Shorty. Players who take the game away in the powerplay. Important that we got off to a good start. We didn't have our big king - Narine today, someone had to step up. Good to see him grab the opportunity (Tromp). Told him that he'll get the opportunity to go up the order sometime. In terms of Popey, long time friend of mine, played a bit of cricket with him, good to see him come in under pressure and take the chance. It was a top spell, four overs on the trot, controlled the game in the middle and got the key wicket. Proud of the boys. We fought really well. Doesn't matter how we get across the line, just want to get across the line. Don't think we've played the perfect cricket game yet. Body is hanging on. Hanging on for dear life. A lot of cricket over the last couple of months.
Short | Unicorns captain: (How did you feel about 184?) Probably on par. I think they might have left a couple out there, I'm not too sure. But I think we did well to pull them back a little bit there after the halfway mark of that first innings. They got off to a little bit of a better start than we did, obviously, with the bat, so, yeah, move on to tomorrow and hopefully push to the finals there. (On the fightback with the bat) It was massive. A couple of guys there in Hassan Khan and Hammad Azam there, who probably haven't had the tournament they would have liked or sort of been batting pretty low in the order and haven't had the opportunity throughout the tournament. So, yeah, it was nice to sort of see them contribute tonight and almost get us over the line. (What's the messaging before the final group stage game?) The messaging is just try and win every game, obviously. The table's pretty tight, so every win's pretty crucial. So, yeah, we would have liked to win tonight and cement us a spot in the finals. We come back tomorrow and push harder, and hopefully get us into San Fran.
23:22 Local Time, 04:22 GMT, 09:52 IST: Knight Riders jump to second spot on the table. They have 10 points, same as the first-placed Unicorns but are behind them on NRR with one game to go. The race is going down to the wire, as did the match today. At one stage it looked like the Knight Riders will win big when they had the opposition at 42/4 but the likes of Short, Hassan Khan and Hammad Azam gave them a scare. Did well to hang on in the end, led by Holder's four-fer.
19.1
W
Russell to Haris Rauf, out Caught by Saif Badar!! Relief for Knight Riders who manage to hang on! Slower one dug in short, pulled hard, goes flat to deep miwicket and Badar makes no mistake. Rauf is down on his haunches. Haris Rauf c Saif Badar b Russell 7(5) [6s-1]
Russell to Haris Rauf, THATS OUT!! Caught!!
Andre Russell [3.0-0-42-2] is back into the attack
Ghulam Mudassar, right handed bat, comes to the crease
Over 19
173-9
44222W(14 runs)
Hammad Azam
40 (19)
Haris Rauf
7 (4)
Jason Holder
4-0-40-4
Over Summary
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18.6
W
Jason Holder to Hammad Azam, out Lbw!! Review for LBW from Holder! Length ball angled in, Azam steps across to slog, misses, and is hit on the pad. Is it missing leg? No, it's not. It's crashing into leg stump and Holder shakes his head, expressing his frustration with the onfield umpire's decision. Hammad Azam lbw b Jason Holder 40(19) [4s-4 6s-2]
Jason Holder to Hammad Azam, THATS OUT!! Lbw!!
Review for LBW from Holder!
18.5
Jason Holder to Hammad Azam, 2 runs, full and wide, carved over backward point, plugs on the outfield, two more
18.4
Jason Holder to Hammad Azam, 2 runs, full outside off, Azam swings hard, slices it in the air off the outside half but it lands wide of backward point. How did they end up getting two? Bravo shaking his head on the sidelines
18.3
Jason Holder to Hammad Azam, 2 runs, steps across the stumps for a scoop, fails to beat short fine, oh there's an overthrow which allows Azam to get back
18.2
4
Jason Holder to Hammad Azam, FOUR, length ball angled away, slapped over mid-off and bounces just short of the ropes
18.1
4
Jason Holder to Hammad Azam, FOUR, dug in short, Azam pulls hard, gets a thick top-edge and it goes over short fine
Jason Holder [3.0-0-26-3] is back into the attack
Over 18
159-8
410141(11 runs)
Hammad Azam
26 (13)
Haris Rauf
7 (4)
Shadley van Schalkwyk
4-0-30-1
Over Summary
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17.6
Shadley van Schalkwyk to Hammad Azam, 1 run, very full, driven to long-off
17.5
4
Shadley van Schalkwyk to Hammad Azam, FOUR, backs away to the leg-side, it's a slower one and Azam lofts off the back foot over mid-off. What a shot!
17.4
Shadley van Schalkwyk to Haris Rauf, 1 run, clipped off the pads behind square
