Unicorns blitz past Super Kings as Short and Allen fifties top du Plessis' 100
It was San Francisco Unicorns' fourth win in four games, and Texas Super Kings' first defeat in MLC 2025
ESPNcricinfo staff
21-Jun-2025 • 3 hrs ago
Finn Allen and Matthew Short gave Unicorns 83 runs in the powerplay • Sportzpics for MLC
San Francisco Unicorns 202 for 3 (Allen 78, Short 61, Fraser-McGurk 37, Milne 1-24) beat Texas Super Kings 198 for 5 (Du Plessis 100, Mukkamalla 38, Bartlett 2-31, Rauf 2-34) by seven wickets
Faf du Plessis slammed a 51-ball 100, but he had to do it alone, pretty much, for Texas Super Kings. That was the difference between Super Kings and San Francisco Unicorns on the day, since Unicorns had two men doing it, doing it at well over a-run-a-ball, and doing it for long enough. The quick half-centuries Matthew Short and Finn Allen hit were not only enough to take Unicorns over the line in a chase of 199, but get there with 23 balls in hand. The win kept them at the top of the MLC 2025 table with four wins in four, with Super Kings one spot below after their first loss.
Super Kings were asked to bat, and du Plessis had two big partnerships for the first two wickets, but he had to contribute exactly 100 runs to those, which added up to 166. In the first stand, of 97, Devon Conway was unusually slow, scoring 23 in 23. In the second, worth 69, Saiteja Mukkamalla did better than Conway had, contributing 38 to du Plessis' 30, though they went at roughly the same strike rate.
To make matters worse for Super Kings, Mukkamalla, du Plessis and Marcus Stoinis fell in an eight-ball spell to Xavier Bartlett and Haris Rauf, and that derailed them at a point when they looked good to top 200.
Du Plessis, though, was supreme in getting his first fifty-plus score since April 29, when he hit 62 in 45 balls for Delhi Capitals against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2025. There were six fours and seven sixes in his innings as he scored at a strike rate of exactly 200 before being dismissed.
But even if Super Kings had crossed 200, it's unlikely Allen and Short would have cared.
Allen barely got any of the strike in the first three overs as Short sped off the blocks, getting to 33 in 16 balls even as Allen was 1 off 2. After that, though, it was a different story. Over four, five and six went for 10, 23 and 15, and Unicorns were 83 for no loss after the powerplay and Allen was 34 off 16 to Short's 46 off 21.
The runs kept coming, and the half-centuries too, as the two took the total to 117 before being separated when Short holed out off Daryl Mitchell for a 29-ball 61. Allen was on 52 at that point in the ninth over, and batted on to score 78 in 35. When he was dismissed, by the impressive Adam Milne, Unicorns were just 30 runs away with 7.4 overs to go. Jake Fraser-McGurk took care of most of those with a 25-ball 37.