MLC 2026, MI NY vs SF 23rd Match Match Report, July 08, 2026

San Francisco Unicorns 146 for 1 (Pretorius 102*, Shepherd 1-17) beat MI New York 143 for 9 (Rickelton 35, Sunny 32, Short 3-24, Hardie 2-17, Rauf 2-24) by nine wickets

Lhuan-dre Pretorius raced to his maiden T20 hundred as San Francisco Unicorns thumped MI New York by nine wickets to consolidate the top spot in MLC 2026. Pretorius smashed 102* off 52 balls – flicking a four to win the game and get to the milestone – in Unicorns’ chase of 144, which was wrapped up with 26 balls to spare.

The next highest score from either side was Ryan Rickelton’s 35 from 21 deliveries. Rickelton and Sunny Patel (32 off 23 balls) were the main contributors for MI NY, who were restricted to just 143 after Unicorns opted to bowl in Dallas. Rickelton led MI NY’s quick start – they had 20 on the board in two overs – before Matthew Short turned it around for Unicorns.

Short struck in three successive overs. He dismissed Quinton de Kock in the third over, Monank Patel in the fifth, and Rickelton in the seventh. That left MI NY at 56 for 3, and Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard took their time to rebuild. Their partnership was halted at 20 when Pollard was bowled by Anirudh Immanuel.

Pooran fell soon after, and it required a 43-run sixth-wicket stand between Sunny and Corey Anderson to push MI NY to near 150.

Pretorius then dominated Unicorns’ reply. He went 4, 4, 6 off Trent Boult in the first over of the chase and took his side to 52 in the powerplay. His opening partner Finn Allen was dismissed for 20 next ball but Pretorius kept going at the other end. Pretorius’ third six took him to fifty off 30 balls in tenth over, even as his new partner Short, who arrived after Allen’s fall, struggled to just 5 off his first 12 deliveries.

With six overs to go, Pretorius was 25 runs away from his hundred when Unicorns required only another 28 to win. That’s when Pretorius targeted Boult again. He smashed four boundaries in the over, and followed that up by going 6 and 4 off Rushil Ugarkar to finish the game. In all, he hit ten fours and five sixes.

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