MLC 2023: Sams’ 42 helps Texas Super Kings beat San Francisco Unicorns by Three Wickets

Men in Yellow book a place in the playoffs by virtue of this win

Texas Super Kings took on San Francisco Unicorns in a must-win encounter for both teams as the winner of this game would have booked a spot in the playoffs of Major League Cricket. Batting first after winning the toss the Unicorns got off to a shaky start as the men in orange lost their opener Finn Alien early as he departed after scoring 4 off 3 balls.

Marcus Stoinis who came in to bat at number three was looking in good touch after the Australian all-rounder hit three fours in his score of 13 but departed soon after he was caught by Faf Du Plessis on the bowling of Gerald Coetzee who was the pick of the bowlers for the Unicorns picking up 4-31 in his four-over spell.

The Recovery

Having lost two early wickets Unicorns were in desperate need of a partnership and the onus was on in form batter Mathew Wade and Pakistani all-rounder Shadab Khan to take their team to safety. They did so by adding 54 runs for the fourth wicket before Wade was dismissed on 49 by Santner. Shadab Khan played a good knock of 20 off 23 balls which was the need of the hour at that point of time in the match for the Unicorns.

But as he was looking set Shadab tried to take on Santner and was dismissed at the boundary after Miller took a well-judged catch. Unicorns ended up with 171 for 8 courtesies of some lower-order hitting by Chaitanya Bishnoi and captain Aron Finch. Mitchel Santner picked up two wickets along with Gerald Coetzee who ended up with four wickets.

The Chase

Chasing a stiff target of 172 to win TSK was not off to a good start as they lost captain Faf Du Plessis for a duck which was followed by the dismissal of Cody Chetty for 4. After losing two early wickets the pair of Devon Conway and Milind Kumar steadied the ship by adding 47 runs for the third wicket. But once Conway was dismissed TSK lost their way as they lost David Miller and Mitchell Santner in quick succession reducing the score to 92 for 5. ‘

That is when Daniel Sams joined hands with Milind Kumar as the duo added 70 runs for the sixth wicket which made the job easy for the batters to come who did their job and took Super Kings over the line and into the playoffs.