AI Simulation, LAKR vs SF | LAKR end horrific campaign on winning note against San Francisco Unicorns

Pitch and Weather

The pitch favoured the batters, especially in the first innings of the game but it changed into the favour of the bowlers in the second half of the game. The chasing side found it difficult to cross the line in the entire 20 overs under the lights owing to the tough conditions.

It was a warm and humid evening in Florida, which favoured the bowlers in the second phase of the game. The game was free from any kind of interruptions due to rain throughout the entire course of the 40 overs.

Toss

San Francisco Unicorns’ skipper Matthew Short won the toss and asked LAKR to bat first, and it eventually backfired on them as they failed to chase down the target in the second innings of the game.

Lineups

LAKR XI: Unmukt Chand (WK), Alex Hales, Andre Fletcher, Andre Russell, Saif Badar, Sherfane Rutherford, Sunil Narine, Jason Holder (C), Corne Dry, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Matthew Tromp

SF XI: Matthew Short (C), Finn Allen (WK), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthy, Karima Gore, Hammad Azam, Hassan Khan, Romario Shepherd, Haris Rauf, Xavier Bartlett, Brody Couch

Match Report

SF Unicorns won the toss and bowled first, and the LA Knight Riders posted 174/7 in the allotted 20 overs in the first innings. Star Opener Alex Hales scored 47 runs off 32 balls, with five fours and two sixes, alongside star all-rounder Andre Russell’s fiery 41 runs off just 22 balls, with two fours and four sixes. Besides these two, opener Unmukt Chand also contributed with 21 runs off 19 balls, with two fours and a six. Star pacer Haris Rauf and all-rounder Romario Shepherd scalped 2 wickets each at just 29 and 34 runs in their respective spells of four overs each. Apart from these two, pacer Xavier Bartlett also claimed a wicket at 27 runs in his four overs.

While chasing the target, the San Francisco Unicorns went quite close to the target, but they couldn’t find any solution to break the barrier of LAKR’s bowling, led by the star all-rounder Andre Russell. Finn Allen and Hammad Azam scored 35 and 33 runs off just 20 and 25 balls, alongside skipper Short’s 29 runs off 22 balls. But these knocks couldn’t help SF as they were restricted to a total of 166/9 in the entire 20 overs and lost the game by a narrow margin of 8 runs. The veteran all-rounder Russell scalped 3 wickets at 28 runs in his four overs, alongside 2 wickets each picked by Sunil Narine and Jason Holder.

Player of the Match

Andre Russell won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his match-winning all-round performance, both with the bat and the ball. He scored 41 runs with the bat in the first innings, followed by scalping 3 wickets with the ball while defending the target in the second innings.

Scorecard