All-round Texas Super Kings make it two in two with big win over Los Angeles Knight Riders

Texas Super Kings were asked to bat for a second game in a row, put up an almost-identical score, and ran out victors again, this time against Los Angeles Knight Riders, to make it two wins in two in MLC 2025.

Unlike in the first game, against MI New York, though, the batting effort was a combined one, with no one standing out with a really big contribution. The stars were in the bowling department - Adam Milne, again, and Noor Ahmad.

The first partnership of any note for LAKR was the one between Alex Hales and Unmukt Chand for the second wicket. Coming together after Andre Fletcher had become Milne's first victim in the second over of the chase of 182, Hales (25 in 17) and Chand (22 in 23) added 27 runs, but the going was slow. Chand then added 28 for the fifth wicket with Matthew Tromp, where Tromp showed some initiative on his way to a 12-ball 23, but Chand still couldn't get any impetus.

Milne started and finished LAKR's fall, adding the wicket of Tanveer Sangha at the end to return 3.1-0-8-2, while Noor ran through the lower-middle order with the wickets of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Tromp - he had sent back Nitish Kumar earlier - to finish with 4 for 25.

Earlier, asked to bat, Devon Conway scored 34 in 22 balls at the top, his partnership with Saiteja Mukkamalla, who scored 31 in 22, giving TSK a solid platform after captain Faf du Plessis fell for a low score again. Conway and Mukkamalla put up 57 runs in 5.1 overs, Mukkamalla clearly the aggressor there, and with 74 on the board after eight, TSK looked good for an above-par score.

Daryl Mitchell (36* in 33), Shubham Ranjane (24 in 19) and Donovan Ferreira (32* in 16) made sure TSK got what they wanted, and it was way too many for LAKR on the day. In a low- and slow-scoring game on the while, Ferreira and Tromp were the only batters to go at at a strike rate of over 155 - Ferreira 200 and Tromp 191.66.