Fletcher 118 helps Knight Riders sign off with win and scuttle Unicorns' top-two plans

Los Angeles Knight Riders notched up only their second win of MLC 2025, but did it at the worst possible time for San Francisco Unicorns, denying them a chance of making the top two on the points table.

Unicorns gave the massive chase of 244 their best shot, but it was firstly too many runs, and secondly, they missed the services of Romario Shepherd with the bat, after he hared in off the boundary line to try and take a catch in the first half, hurt his ankle, and wasn't available for the rest of the game.

The total of 676 runs scored in this, the last game of the league phase, was way ahead of the norm in Lauderhill - the top innings score in the other eight games had been 188 - and it was all thanks to Andre Fletcher, Alex Hales and Sherfane Rutherford in the first half and Sanjay Krishnamurthi in the second.

For a while, Krishnamurthi threatened to eclipse Fletcher's 118, getting to 92 off just 39 balls with seven fours and seven sixes by the end of the 14th over. At that stage, 68 were needed off five overs, the game having been reduced to a 19-overs-a-side affair after a rain delay more or less halfway into the Knight Riders innings. But Jason Holder sent Krishnamurthi back first ball of the 15th, and despite some lusty hitting from Xavier Bartlett, who hit Corne Dry for three sixes and a four in the 16th, Unicorns ran out of steam. Shepherd was missed a great deal.

The chase had started badly for Unicorns, though. Karthik Gattepalli, the left-arm spinner on MLC debut, opened the bowling with Dominic Drakes and, after Drakes had removed Finn Allen in the first over, accounted for Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk in the second on his way to returns of 3 for 31.

Krishnamurthi, with help from Hassan Khan (35 in 17) and Hammad Azam (38 in 27) did give Knight Riders a scare, but all the runs they had put on the board made it their night in Lauderhill.

After Unicorns had opted to bowl, they went a straight seven-and-a-half overs without a wicket as Knight Riders put up 76 in the powerplay. Most of the damage was done by Alex Hales, who had had a quiet time of it in the competition leading up to this game, as he hit 58 in 26 in the partnership of 94 with Fletcher before becoming first man out.

Fletcher then built another big partnership with Rutherford, this one of 97 runs in 52 balls, the two more or less evenly splitting the runs - Fletcher 45 in 24 and Rutherford 49 in 28 - before Rutherford was sent back in the 17th over. Fletcher was on 79 in 46 balls at that point, and upper a gear or two in the company of Rovman Powell, hitting Brody Couch for three sixes and a four - and getting to his century in the process - in the 18th over, and finishing off with two more sixes off Hassan in the last before falling off the last ball of the innings. His 118 (off 58) was his second century of the competition.

Knight Riders are done in MLC 2025, along with Seattle Orcas. The top two, Washington Freedom and Texas Super Kings are up next, in Qualifier 1, with the winners going through to the final. Unicorns take on MI New York in the Eliminator, with the losers exiting the tournament and the winners taking on the losers of Qualifier 1 in Qualifier 2.