Seattle Orcas Face Heartbreaking Elimination from Major League Cricket 2024

San Francisco Unicorns secure top-two spot with dominant victory

Absolute electric! Finn Allen in action during the match against the Seattle Orcas at the Grand Prairie Stadium / SAN FRANSISCO UNICORNS ON X.

MLC clubs are facing elimination, with the Seattle Orcas being the first team to experience such a tragic event, Major League Cricket 2024 is veering differently. Despite battling and attempting to recover, the Orcas ultimately threw in the towel and faced formal elimination following their match against the San Francisco Unicorns. The Unicorns required the victory to secure a spot among the top two finish lines in the MLC 2024 with the Orcas suffered a crushing defeat. The Washington Freedoms guaranteed a significant discrepancy in winning its top spot in the MLC Table 2024; thus, San Francisco has lived to its dream of finishing in the top two. This has also saved the Texas Super Kings a place in the top four. 

“Yeah, I think the way Camie (le Roux) bowled at the top, we asked him to swing at the top, those two wickets were crucial for us. I want to try and be aggressive at the top, put the bowlers under pressure, I went a tad too hard today, but it did help us to kill the game. The conditions were a bit balanced for both batters and bowlers. Shorty is great, we both love to bat with each other, we've a good comfort level. We'll get an extra life (on finishing in the top-2), have Washington on Monday to finish the league games off,” Allen said in media reports.

With 34 balls remaining, Allen led the Unicorns to victory with a remarkable performance. The Powerplay came out with a 79 for the Unicorns, with 59 derived from the outstanding player Allen. Allen moved ahead, scorching Lungi Ngidi in a 26-run over, while Matthew Short had six overs off Cameron Gannon in an 18-run over. Keemo Paul, who had just six runs in his first over, suffered most next as Allen drew up a 21-ball 50.

Despite Harmeet Singh's diligent efforts to catch Allen at long in the 18th over, the Unicorns were already in a dominant position. Losing both its openers, Ryan Rickelton and Aaron Jones, for first-ball ducks in the opening over of the game, the Orcas opened the day with a terrible bat. Quinton De Kock and Shehan Jayasuriya pulled the innings back on track with a 97-run stand for the third wicket, and De Kock went ahead top-scoring with a 33-ball 62 before Brody Couch had him skying a massive hit. The Orcas obviously wouldn't go down without putting up a fight. With an injury forcing Couch to leave, Corey Anderson struck his second ball, putting the Orcas in a position to disrupt once more.

Things worsened when left-arm spinner Hassan Khan grabbed Heinrich Klaasen's first ball, catching him at sweeper cover off an edge. In his following over, Khan went further with a back-to-back wicket, returning both Harmeet Singh and Keemo Paul. The 36-run stand by Shubham and Imad mini-partnership rallied the Orcas past 150, only to astound them with the Allen-led assault.

“Disappointing, we were in the final last year, this year we didn't bat well, not a lot of firepower. The bowlers were good and did what best they could do. A bit under par, maybe 15-20 runs short and that cost us in the end. Quinny is a special cricketer, he has got that reputation, he's around 32 now, he doesn't care about stats, I'll speak with him and hope that he racks up the runs. We've been poor in this season, disappointing for the franchise and the owners,” Heinrich said in media reports.