Washington Freedom will look to gain a psychological edge over the San Francisco Unicorns in their last league game of the Major League Cricket 2024 season at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Monday.

Our match against SFU on July 22, a dress rehearsal for the Qualifier of MLC 2024, is scheduled to start at 7:30 PM CT (July 23, 6:00 AM IST). The MLC 2024 game will be available to watch via live streaming and broadcast.

With a comprehensive 42-run win over the Texas Super Kings, our unbeaten run in MLC 2024 continued. We are on top of the points table with 11 points from six games.

Travis Head and Steve Smith came up with contrasting half-centuries, while Rachin Ravindra picked up four wickets, and Glenn Maxwell and Jasdeep Singh each got three in an all-round performance against TSK.

Despite missing the last two matches for us, Netravalkar continues to top the bowling charts in MLC 2024 with 12 wickets from just four matches at an average of 9.16 runs and an astonishing strike rate of 7.66.

 

Meanwhile, Travis Head and captain Steve Smith continue their run in the top-five batters list this season. 

 

Head has amassed 194 runs from six matches at an average of 38.80 and an impressive strike rate of 179.62 to be third on the overall list, whereas Smith is one run below at fourth with 191 runs. He has an unbelievable average of 63.66, the highest for any player this season, and a strike rate of 136.42.

 

WF vs SFU form in MLC

Coming into this contest, we are unbeaten in our last five matches in the MLC, winning four of them, with one game washed off due to rain. We beat the San Francisco Unicorns by 30 runs in Morrisville in the 2023 season in our only meeting against them to date.

 

Washington Freedom's last five matches

Opponent

Venue

Result

Match Date 

Margin

TSK

Dallas

Won

July 19, 2024

42 runs

MINY

Dallas

Won

July 16, 2024

94 runs

LAKR

Morrisville

Won

July 14, 2024

8 wickets

SO

Dallas

Won

July 11, 2024

5 wickets

TSK

Morrisville

No Result

July 8, 2024

-

 

WF vs SFU, MLC 2024: Players to watch out

 

Head and Smith once again provided us with an excellent start against the Texas Super Kings in the last match to power the team to the highest total in MLC 2024. 

 

Head scored his third consecutive fifty off just 20 balls, the fastest this season, to take us to the best powerplay score by any team this season. However, Faf du Plessis and TSK rewrote both records during the chase. Head also has the most fifties by any player this season.

 

Meanwhile, Smith endured a slow start to go big in the later stage guiding the team to its first 200-plus total in MLC. He also scored his first half-century in the process.

 

Jasdeep Singh won the Player of the Match for a second straight match with an impressive three-wicket haul. He was reintroduced into the attack after the powerplay when TSK were flying high. 

 

Jasdeep brought us back into the match with a spell of 3/17 in his last three overs, including the wickets of the dangerous du Plessis and Aaron Hardy. Apart from Jasdeep, Rachin Ravindra recorded career-best T20 bowling figures picking up 4/16 and Glenn Maxwell also chipped in with three wickets.

Coming to our match against San Francisco Unicorns last season, Netravalkar won the match single-handedly for us with his splendid spell of fast bowling. The left-arm pacer picked up a career-best 6/9 to skittle out SFU for 103 in response to our 133/8 batting first. This is also the best bowling performance in the MLC to date.

 

Washington Freedom squad: Steven Smith (c), Akhilesh Reddy, Jack Edwards, Andries Gous, Travis Head, Lahiru Milantha, Mukhtar Ahmed, Justin Dill, Ian Holland, Marco Jansen, Glenn Maxwell, Obus Pienaar, Rachin Ravindra, Amila Aponso, Lockie Ferguson, Akeal Hosein, Saurabh Netravalkar, Andrew Tye, Yasir Mohammad

 

Where to watch WF vs SFU MLC 2024 LIVE

LIVE telecast and streaming of the Washington Freedom vs San Francisco Unicorns match will be available on Monumental Sports Network and Willow by Cricbuzz in the USA. The match will start at 7:30 PM CT on July 22.

The WF vs SFU match will be streamed LIVE on the Jio Cinema App and website in India starting at 06:00 AM IST on July 23.