Los Angeles Knight Riders 164 (Fletcher 47, Munro 40, Tromp 39, Dwarshuis 3-31, Owen 2-14, Ravindra 2-23, Chaudhary 2-32) beat Washington Freedom 163 for 9 (Pienaar 53, Gous 40, Narine 3-13, Holder 3-31, Van Schalkwyk 2-50) by one run
A maiden appearance in the MLC playoffs culminated in a maiden title for Los Angeles Knight Riders in front of a substantial crowd of over 10,000 at Oakland Coliseum on Saturday as Knight Riders wrapped up the MLC 2026 season with their eighth victory after managing just five wins across the previous three seasons.
It went right down to the wire with Washington Freedom needing 14 off the final over. Shadley van Schalkwyk conceded a six first ball to Obus Pienaar, but closed it out with a death-bowling masterclass, which had shades of Dwayne Bravo, his coach at Knight Riders.
That six brought Pienaar his maiden T20 half-century, but van Schalkwyk yorked him next ball before having Ian Holland holing out third ball of the over. Lockie Ferguson squeezed a four next ball to narrow the equation to four needed off two balls, but van Schalkwyk held his nerve and length to give up just singles off the final two balls, securing the title by the barest of margins.
Lahiru Milantha was run-out off the last ball attempting a double that would have set up a Super Over. However, it was not to be.
Knight Riders’ Caribbean boys also played prominent roles in the final. After Sunil Narine struck three times in the powerplay, Jason Holder carved up Freedom’s middle order and ensured that his team was always in it, despite managing only an under-par 164 after they were asked to bat first.
Colin Munro was slow off the blocks, but Andre Fletcher, the self-styled “Spiceman” got cracking with three fours off left-arm seamer Ben Dwarshuis in the powerplay. Fletcher also used the extra pace of Ferguson, who had replaced Glenn Maxwell, to his advantage, flat-batting him through the covers for four and cracking a straight six. By the time the powerplay ended, Fletcher had scored 38 of Knight Riders’ 54.
Knight Riders cool off after spinners’ strikes
Allrounder Nikhil Chaudhary then struck in his first over, with a sizzling wrong’un to cut Fletcher’s knock short on 47 off 27 balls. In the same over, he knocked over Andre Russell for a duck with a ripping legbreak that hit the top of off.
Chaudhary missed his lengths against Munro, allowing the left-hand batter to launch three successive sixes in the tenth over, but Rachin Ravindra stopped Munro on 40 off 29 balls. The left-arm fingerspinner hid one away from the swinging arc of Munro from around the wicket to have him holing out to long-off.
Knight Riders responded by bumping Narine up to No. 5, but Ravindra kept hugging the wide line and had Narine chopping on for a duck. Knight Riders were 111 for 4 in the 12th over at this point. But Matthew Tromp played some sparkling strokes to help drag his side past 160. He was more fluent against spin, taking Ravindra and Chaudhary for 25 off 12 balls.
At the halfway mark, Freedom were 76% favourites to win, according to Cricinfo’s Forecaster, but that dropped to around 50% after Narine ripped out all of Mitchell Owen, Steven Smith and Ravindra in the powerplay.
Narine doesn’t usually operate with the new ball in other leagues, including the IPL and the CPL, but in this MLC, he has reinvented himself as a powerplay bowler. Fifteen of his chart-topping 18 wickets have come in the powerplay alone in this season at an economy rate of under five – by far his best numbers in the first six overs in any T20 league.
While Owen and Ravindra were undone by extra bounce, Smith was left clueless by a ripping offbreak from around the wicket. Narine finished with figures of 4-0-13-3.
Holder enters the 400-wicket club
Andries Gous and Chaudhary repaired the chase with a 65-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Holder dented Freedom again. Holder broke the stand and reached 400 T20 wickets when he had Chaudhary slicing a low full-toss to Unmukt Chand, the sub fielder, in the 14th over. Holder proceeded to dismiss Dwarshuis and Gous to leave Freedom at 109 for 6.
Van Schalkwyk gets the job done
Pienaar then threatened a late twist by pinging the boundary or clearing it regularly. When Freedom needed 29 off 12 balls, Pienaar went 4, 6 and 4 against Ali Khan. This, after he had taken Van Schalkwyk for a brace of sixes in the 18th over.
Van Schalkwyk leaked 38 runs in his first three overs, but with Bravo egging him and his team-mates on from the edge of the boundary, he nailed his yorkers in the final over to deliver Knight Riders their first title.
Van Schalkwyk, who was born in Cape Town and played some domestic cricket in South Africa, had rocked up in the USA with two suitcases. He has now won both the Major League and Minor League titles in his adopted country.
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