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Unmukt Chand (Source-ESPN CRICINFO/MLC)
Los Angeles Knight Riders made a terrific comeback into the MLC 2024 season with a timely win over Seattle Orcas. The star with the bat for the Knight Riders was former India Under-19 skipper Unmukt Chand who scored 62 runs from 47 balls.
It was an important game for LA Knight Riders who had to win to keep their hopes alive to make it to the playoff places. Seattle Orcas batted first and scored 142 which the LA Knight Riders chased down with 4 wickets left and five balls left to play.
Your Man Of The Match for Game 15@UnmuktChand9
— Unmukt Chand FC Global (@UnmuktChand9FC) July 17, 2024
62 off 47 with 3 Fours and as many sixes.
Strike Rate of 132@LA_KnightRiders stay alive in @MLCricket with one match to go.
Congratulations to UCIANS❤️ pic.twitter.com/nk1fYDGW65
With this win LA Knight Riders now move to fourth in the table with 5 points from 6 games. Seattle Orcas on the other hand are bottom of the table with 2 points from five matches and are just behind MI New York who have 3 points from 5 matches.
LA Knight Riders pick up timely win
Seattle Orcas skipper Heinrich Klaasen won the toss and chose to bat first. Ryan Rickelton gave the Orcas a great start as he attacked the bowlers at one end. Shehan Jayasuriya (2) and Quinton De Kock (0) perished early.
Ryan Rickelton and Heinrich Klaasen added 64 runs for the 3rd wicket before Klaasen was out for 23. The top scorer for Orcas was none other than Rickelton who scored 89 off 47 balls with 7 fours and 6 sixes,
Chasing 143 to win, LA Knight Riders lost skipper Sunil Narine for 8. This saw Chand walk out to bat and add 58 runs for the second wicket with Jason Roy who scored 27. Harmeet Singh and Cameron Gannon picked two wickets each to bring the Orcas back into the game.
Saif Badar with 18 not out from 16 balls saw the team through to get two key points for the Knight Riders. At the end of the game, Sunil Narine said “Was definitely a much-needed win, we started well in the powerplay and tried to squeeze as much as we could. It was a total team effort, we could have done better with the bat but a win is a win. At this stage of the tournament, all we could do was win. We have one more game and we will try to execute as well as we can”
Speaking about the batting performance of Unmukt Chand, this is what Sunil Narine said “He has form and he is confident. When you have local guys doing well it gets the senior guys going. We need to play our best cricket on the day and try and get to the knockout stage”