We have another double header of action in Major League Cricket on Sunday and it gets underway with the Los Angeles Knight Riders and the Texas Super Kings playing their second match of the MLC 2025 season in Oakland.
The Knight Riders ran into the unmovable force that is the San Francisco Unicorns in their opening game while the Super Kings edged out MI New York so it will be interesting to see if this one goes with the form or whether there is a change in luck.
Los Angeles Knight Riders
The Los Angeles Knight Riders could have done without their opening match being against the San Francisco Unicorns. They were always going to be a team who will build into the competition when the likes of Jason Holder and Rovman Powell arrive to add depth to the batting and bowling department and in the end against San Francisco, they were probably one big gun light to be able to go toe-to-toe with the men in orange.
For an opening game it wasn’t a disaster. They will have been disappointed that they couldn’t keep tabs on the big partnership that took the game away from them but they won’t be the last team that Finn Allen and Jake Fraser-McGurk get after. If there is a legitimate criticism of the Knight Riders in that first game then it would come in the form of a few players getting themselves in both they had a top score of 53 rather than someone going on to get the 80+ score which might have got them home.
Texas Super Kings
The Texas Super Kings were involved in a roller coaster of a match in their opening game of the campaign. They looked like they had put a competitive total on the board against MI New York, albeit one which probably wasn’t much above par but for much of the attempt to defend the score they were well behind the game. The positive for the Texas side is that they hung in the game and waited for an opening and when it arrived they made full use of it and edged themselves home.
Winning a game like that will give them confidence because they weren’t at their best yet got over the line. They will know there is the potential to be a lot more clinical with the bat, especially in the middle overs, and if they can do that then they are entitled to be very tough to beat in this competition. There are a couple of bowlers who you would imagine will come on for the run as well so Texas are in a decent spot going into this second game.
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Key Players
Unmukt Chand was probably the man most guilty of getting himself in and looking good and then getting out before the job was done. Los Angeles will hope that if he plays himself in here that he goes on to get a big score.
Devon Conway probably isn’t a player who many would suggest is naturally suited to the modern T20 game but he represents all of the Super Kings franchises so it was probably no bad thing that he got off to a good start in the opening game.
Betting
I’m not sure what I made of the Texas Super Kings in that opening match so I would like another look at them before I commit to anything which directly involves them. I don’t really want to back Los Angeles Knight Riders to win the match because they played on Saturday and went round the park in what looked like pretty extreme conditions so they could struggle to back that effort up, especially when they are in the field.
You tend to find that when a team backs up the next day they are more aggressive with the bat. I guess with the running in their legs they don’t want to do as much so the over 10.5 Los Angeles sixes line appeals to me in this one. They hit 12 in defeat against San Francisco on Saturday evening and Andre Russell faced two balls in that innings and Alex Hales just six. That makes me think that there is more to come in the hitting department for the Knight Riders so I like the over on that line.
Tips
Back Los Angeles Knight Riders – Over 10.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
