The San Francisco Unicorns (SF) secured a dramatic one-run victory over the Texas Super Kings (TSK) in Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025, moving to the top of the table with 14 points. Player of the Match Matthew Short played a crucial role, anchoring SF’s innings and guiding them to a defendable total in testing conditions.
SF found themselves in early trouble after being reduced to 19/3. However, a vital 69-run partnership between Short and Hassan Khan steadied the innings. Hassan contributed a quickfire 40 off 25 balls, while Short carried his bat to the end, finishing with a composed 80 off 63 balls. SF ended their innings at 148/6.
In reply, TSK faced early setbacks as well, losing openers Faf du Plessis (1) and Smit Patel (8) cheaply. The middle order tried to rebuild the chase, with contributions from Saiteja Mukkamalla (34 off 29), Marcus Stoinis (13 off 20), Shubham Ranjane (28 off 27), Donovan Ferreira (39 off 20), and Mohammad Mohsin (11 off 6). But despite getting close, TSK fell agonisingly short by just one run.
Stoinis had earlier starred with the ball too, picking up 3/32 to limit SF’s scoring. The final over brought high drama. TSK needed 13 runs with Mohsin and Calvin Savage at the crease. They managed 10 runs from the first five balls, leaving three required off the final delivery. But Xavier Bartlett held his nerve. Only a single run was taken, and Savage was run out attempting a second—handing SF a stunning win.
Matthew Short on Battling the Conditions
In the post-match interview, SF skipper Matthew Short acknowledged the tough playing conditions and credited the ground staff.
“It’s a bit of a grind out there, actually. The wicket was really tacky. The groundsman did a great job of getting the wicket up. It was being covered most of the morning, and with all that rain, credit to them for getting the wicket up. But, yeah, it was really tough work, though, early on; tacky, as you saw, playing Akeal was really hard, as there was a bit of spin there. A bit of a grind, a couple of partnerships there through the middle, which really helped and got to a decent total in the end,” Short said.
He also expressed relief after bouncing back from two straight defeats.
“Very happy. I mean, we’ve come off two losses in a row, which were probably winnable games, to be fair and honest. It was nice to get that win tonight and get that momentum back, hopefully leading into the finals,” he added.
For more exciting articles, follow RevSportz.