Washington Freedom Edges Over Seattle Orcas by 5 wickets in low-scoring thriller

Ferguson and Netravalkar starred with the ball, while Milantha and Pineaar played a crucial part with the bat in Washington’s win.

Dallas, Texas (July 12,2024)- Washington Freedom edged out Seattle Orcas by 5 wickets in a low-score match in the Cognizant Major League Cricket at Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas on Thursday.

Lockie Furgueson (4/26) and Saurabh Netravalkar (3/18) took seven wickets in shred way to clear out Seattle Orcas on 124 in 19.4 overs. Lahiru Milantha (33* off 30) and Obus Pineaar (31* off 30) then made a crucial partnership of 63 runs to guide Washington Freedom across their 125 run target with 10 balls to spare.

With this victory, Washington Freedom moved to the top of the table with 5 points from three matches, standing as the only unbeaten team in the tournament thus far.

Seattle Orcas came out blazing to defend a low total of 125 runs. Imad Wasim dismissed Travis Head for a duck on the second ball of the innings, ending his over with a wicket and a maiden. Steve Smith and Rachin Ravindra then tried to rebuild the score with a counter attack, and they scored as many as 18 runs in the 3rd over. Ravindra was looking dangerous with his bat, but Nandre Burger dismissed him in the fifth over for 26 off 16 balls. Smith followed him back to pavilion in the over that followed with 12 off 13, leaving the Orcas at 47/3 after 6 overs.

Both Mukhtar Ahmed and Glenn Maxwell were given lifelines as both of their catches were dropped once, but they couldn’t make use of their second chances. Ahmed(8 off 8) was dismissed by Burger in 8th over, and Maxwell(10 off 11) fell to Harmeet, leaving their team struggling at 68/5 after 10 overs.

Despite the situation, Washington Freedom batters showed their agility as they carefully approached their target.

Earlier in the contest, Seattle Orcas had a slow start to their innings. The Seattle batters struggled to accelerate on the slow batting track, only getting 35 runs in the powerplay.

Heinrich Klaasen and Shubham Ranjane carefully made a crucial partnership that somewhat steadied Seattle’s innings. They crossed 100-run mark in the 15th over.

Meanwhile, Washington bowlers didn’t allow the batters to score big. Ferguson took 2 wickets in the 27th over, finishing his spell with 4 wickets, leaving Seattle struggling at 112/8 after 18 overs.

Seattle managed to get 9 runs in penultimate over. Cameron Gannon struck a six, but was dismissed on his second attempt as Ferguson caught him out. Netravakar then removed Nandre Burger, thus bowling out Orcas at 124 in 19.4 overs.

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