Los Angeles Knight Riders 154 for 3 (Munro 64*, Fletcher 34, Siddle 2-27) beat San Francisco Unicorns 150 for 7 (Pretorius 58, Short 30, Narine 2-33) by seven wickets
It got a bit tricky for Knight Riders as they chased a steep 151-run target in the rain-affected, 14-overs-a-side game. When the 11th over of the chase began, Knight Riders still had 52 runs to get from 24 balls. But Haris Rauf’s over went for 23 runs, with Jason Holder, having just walked out, smashing two sixes and a four to go with Munro’s boundary at the start of the over.
That brought the requirement down to 29 from 18, and then it was the home stretch, and Munro led the way past the finish.
Unicorns had Lhuan-dre Pretorius to thank for the target they set Knight Riders. It wasn’t the sort of frenetic start you would expect in a shortened game, but Pretorius was on a solid 39 in 18 balls at the end of 4.1 overs, which was the revised powerplay, and Unicorns were a healthy 48 for no loss. And they reached 123 for 3 after ten, looking good to go well past 160, even 170.
But Carmi le Roux, Andre Russell, Holder and Shadley van Schalkwyk bowled the last four overs, in that order, and gave away just four, seven, seven and nine runs respectively, pegging Unicorns back. The good work from Pretorius at the top, though, had given them a bit of cushion – his 28-ball 58 quite the innings of the match even if it ended up on the losing side
And that looked woefully inadequate when Munro and Fletcher hit 54 in the powerplay and Knight Riders were 70 for 1 after six overs. The slowdown never came, despite overs eight and ten, bowled by Brody Couch and Peter Siddle, going for four and two runs respectively, but it still need Holder to go big towards the end.
In the end, the numbers were good enough for Knight Riders, who won by seven wickets, with two balls remaining.
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