Netravalkar the star as Freedom demolish the Orcas to halt their recently resurgent winning streak in the MLC.
Maxwell and Netravalkar set up Freedom’s demolition of Orcas.
For the Seattle Orcas, Shimron Hetmyer had won three straight games, but he was unable to do so against the Washington Freedom. Hetmyer had a bad day, scoring a meagre 82. The Orcas hitting lineup, which had faltered and fallen to five straight losses before to Hetmyer taking over, returned to being inept. Freedom completed the chase and returned to second place on the MLC 2025 points table in just 9.2 overs.
Shayan Jahangir was dismissed when Freedom won the toss, bowled, and Saurabh Netravalkar hit the first ball. Glenn Maxwell had Aaron Jones’ number in the next over. In the third over, Netravalkar removed Sikandar Raza. Steven Taylor was sent back by Maxwell on the first ball of the fourth. Maxwell then finished the powerplay with Kyle Mayers’ wicket, leaving Orcas at 21 for 5 after six overs.
The other key Freedom wicket-taker, Jack Edwards, finished with 3 for 19, including Heinrich Klaasen, the lone Orcas batsman to battle his way out of last man out for a 48 from 39 balls.
Despite Raza’s dismissal of Mitchell Owen in the third over, the chase was simple. Rachin Ravindra and Mukhtar Ahmed had reduced Freedom to 50 for 1 by the end of the powerplay, with 14 overs remaining and just 37 runs needed. Ravindra scored 32 from 23 before being the next batter out, while Mukhtar stayed undefeated with a 21-ball 36, so they only needed 3.2 more.