Washington Freedom claimed their first victory of Major League Cricket with a six run win over Texas Super Kings.
A superb 80 off 50 balls from Matt Short, combined with an excellent all-round bowling effort saw Freedom defeat a strong Super Kings XI.
Freedom named an unchanged team to the side that narrowly lost to Seattle Orcas on opening night and Short and Andries Gous got us off to a fantastic start, with Short finding the boundary twice in the opening over.
Short’s knock of 80 was the standout contribution of the innings, with the next top scorer being Moises Henriques who made 21, before Obus Pienaar made a vital contribution of 18 off 11 balls at the end to lift our score to 163.
With the ball, Marco Jansen got our defence off to the perfect start, clean bowling Devon Conway in the very first over to dismiss the Kiwi batter for a golden duck.
Marco Jansen strikes
Saurabh Netravalkar then claimed the second key wicket, removing Faf du Plessis, before the spin of Dane Piedt and then Akeal Hosein swung the match in our favour with three quick wickets as Piedt removed David Miller first, before Hosein struck twice in the same over to leave the Super Kings 50 for five.
Hosein turns the game
Needing 39 off the final two overs, Super Kings managed 32, but it wasn’t enough as Freedom claimed their first ever victory in Major League Cricket.