Business has certainly picked up in MLC 2025. San Francisco Unicorns continue to be unbeaten and have already booked their place in the playoffs. Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom look primed to join them as well. But with almost half the matches still remaining in the group stage, anything can happen. SFU have won six on the trot, Freedom have won four on the bounce after getting dismantled in the tournament opener. LA Knight Riders will now have to hope that they can script a streak similar to these in order to remain in contention for the title ten days from now.
MLC 2025
LA Knight Riders seek second-half turnaround
Can LA Knight Riders script a dramatic turnaround? © Sportzpics
After losing their first three matches, LAKR did finally manage to fetch their first points of the season before losing to TSK for the second time. To now avoid losing to Freedom for the second time, LAKR need a big lift. Their batting has been under the scanner throughout the season and they failed again in their last game. To make matters worse, LAKR were bundled out for less than 100 against Freedom when they met earlier this season in a game where Glenn Maxwell went absolutely berserk.
To topple this outfit will take a monumental effort, especially when they are on a four-match winning streak. The defending champions even managed to chase down 221 in their previous game which highlights the form of that batting unit. Can the LAKR batters go toe to toe with them?
When: June 26 at 7 PM local time, 5:30 AM IST (June 27)
Where: Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas
What to expect:A high-scoring venue, but teams are certainly going to be confused given what has transpired so far. The first four matches here were won by the chasing side but the last three games has seen totals getting defended quite comfortably.
Team News
LA Knight Riders
Alex Hales has hit 37 runs in the five games so far and the Knight Riders may finally pull the plug now and bring back Andre Fletcher.
Probable XI: Unmukt Chand(w), Andre Fletcher, Nitish Kumar, Saif Badar, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Andre Russell, Jason Holder(c), Sunil Narine, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan
Washington Freedom
Mark Adair and Mark Chapman missed the game due to niggles. Freedom might not want to risk them already and just stick with the same combination.
Probable XI: Mitchell Owen, Rachin Ravindra, Andries Gous(w), Jack Edwards, Glenn Maxwell(c), Glenn Phillips, Obus Pienaar, Mukhtar Ahmed, Matthew Forde, Ian Holland, Saurabh Netravalkar
© Cricbuzz
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