There is a double header of action in the Major League Cricket competition on Saturday and after two cracking matches in the last two nights the top two in the MLC 2025 table meet to open up the day when the Washington Freedom host the San Francisco Unicorns.
San Francisco continue to blaze a trail at the top of the table but Washington are right on their heels and will join them on 12 points with a win here. The Freedom will also secure their spot in the postseason while they are at it.
Washington Freedom
The Washington Freedom look well on course to have a really good crack at making a successful defence of their title. That certainly didn’t look to be the case when these two faced off on the opening night of the new campaign when the Freedom where taken to the cleaners but since then they have won five matches on the trot and one more victory in their last four outings will ensure that they extend their season. They will be eyeing up a top two finish from here though.
The Freedom have dominated matches with the bat, which is not a complete contrast to last season but the reason why they were champions a year ago is because their bowling unit was so hard to get away. To be fair to that unit, they are not bowling on pitches which have tired from a T20 World Cup this time around so we shouldn’t be too harsh on them. It seems the champion this season will have firepower throughout their batting order and Washington certainly tick that box.
San Francisco Unicorns
The San Francisco Unicorns got out in front with that emphatic demolition of the Washington Freedom in the opening game of the tournament and they haven’t looked back since then. They have already guaranteed themselves a playoff spot and now their next target will be to land a top two finish and give themselves two goes at making the final should they need it. They are two wins away from achieving that aim too and were one to come here they might not need to win another game to finish in the top two.
There is no doubt that the Unicorns have done most of their best stuff with the bat this season. They have clobbered 175 or more in all six of their innings this term and have gone as high as 219 or more in half of their innings. If they don’t lose early wickets then they can produce carnage on these wickets. You would have to say that their bowling is a distinct second best and probably at least one top class bowler light, but while their batting is firing like it is then that isn’t going to matter too much.
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Key Players
Glenn Phillips finally announced himself in a Washington Freedom shirt in the last match when he completed an incredible run chase off the final ball of the match and if he kicks on from here Washington could be hard to beat.
Romario Shepherd will be a key player for the San Francisco Unicorns here. He will need to finish off the batting innings but it is his skills at the death with the ball in hand which could be most useful in what is expected to be a very high scoring game.
Betting
The general line for the sixes in this match is 23.5 but if you have a Bet365 account then you can get on at 21.5 and while I certainly wouldn’t be recommending visiting lines this high too often, with the way these teams have been put together and the style of cricket they employ I just don’t see how we don’t get it covered here, especially when you consider that we have just had two matches on this ground where all four innings have surpassed 200.
Those two matches had 26 sixes and 32 sixes and that trend is expected to continue here. We saw in the opening match of the season that these two can clobber sixes against each other. Although it was in Oakland, San Francisco smoked 28 sixes against the Freedom attack and they have added Romario Shepherd to their ranks since then. Washington were bowled out for 146 in reply but still went down with 12 sixes to their name so two extremely aggressive batting units are expected to belt plenty more sixes against two attacks which contain no mystery.
Tips
Back Over 21.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
