Washington Freedom 110 for 4 (Smith 40*, Chapman 34, Narine 2-25) beat Los Angeles Knight Riders 108 (Powell 30, Netravalkar 3-16, Owen 3-19, Dwarshuis 2-12, Ian Holland 2-25) by six wickets
It was an abject batting display from Los Angeles Knight Riders, not for the first time this season, and while Washington Freedom had their own struggles with the bat, they were only chasing 109, and got there with 17 balls to spare in their MLC 2026 game on Wednesday.
MLC action shifted from Oakland to Pomona after a two-day gap, and the first glimpse of the new venue suggested tough times for batters over the next few days – Pomona is hosting seven games.
It has started with a game where 218 runs were scored for the loss of 14 wickets in 37.1 overs, with Knight Riders rolled over for 108 by the combination of Saurabh Netravalkar, Ben Dwarshuis, Mitchell Owen and Ian Holland. Up top, Colin Munro scored 25 but took 31 balls to get them – after scoring 33 in 36 balls in Knight Riders’ previous game – and Matthew Tromp scored 21 in 20 from No. 3. All they had after the powerplay was 40 for 1.
And, if anything, it was poorer after that, with the scoreboard reading 59 for 3 after ten overs. The wickets kept falling, Netravalkar sending back Jason Holder and Andre Russell in the 13th to effectively scuttle Knight Riders’ hopes of getting somewhere safe. There was a bit of a scrap from Rovman Powell, who hit two fours and two sixes in his 19-ball 30, but absolutely nothing around him.
Netravalkar and Owen, who also had a double-wicket over, picked up three wickets each, while Dwarshuis and Holland had two apiece.
It was a good opportunity for Steven Smith to find some form, and he might have done a little bit of that, scoring an unbeaten 40 in 44 balls to make sure Freedom got home. The slowness of his innings didn’t do much for his strike rate, though, which is still 106.83 after six innings.
But he had a job to do after Sunil Narine sent back Owen and Andries Gous inside three overs to give Knight Riders a bit of hope, and Mark Chapman was a good partner to help Smith along. The two added 62 runs for the third wicket, taking 54 balls to get them, and took Freedom to within sight of the target before Chapman fell for a 30-ball 34.
Nikhil Chaudhary fell too for a 12-ball 15, before Smith and Lahiru Milantha finished the job.
The win lifted Freedom to fourth place on the table – level on points with the top three of San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas and Texas Super Kings but well behind on net run rate – while Knight Riders slipped to the bottom.
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