MLC 2025 | Contrasting fortunes collide as invincible SF Unicorns look to take down winless Seattle Orcas

A quick look at the stats of the season so far is enough to give a clear indication as to why San Francisco Unicorns and Seattle Orcas are placed where they are in the table. In Finn Allen and Haris Rauf, the Unicorns have both the highest run-getter (294 runs) and the highest wicket-taker (12 wickets) in the tournament, despite the former missing a game due to illness. The Orcas, on the other hand, have only batter to have surpassed 100 runs while none of their bowlers have even tallied five wickets in the tournament so far. Kyle Mayers is also their only player from the team to register a half-century in the tournament --  Allen alone has two half-centuries and a ton to his name midway through the season. 

If there are any positives for the Orcas to take into the encounter, it is the fact that their two recent losses have been competitive games where they at least had a chance to seize the contest. In the opener, the side had endured Washington Freedon chasing down their 145-run total in just 13.3 overs, before collapsing to 60 all-out while chasing 154 against Texas Super Kings. In contrast, their last two defences have lasted till the 20th and 19th over against MI New York and LA Knight Riders respectively. Unicorns, meanwhile, have struck a tournament-record first-innings total of 269/5 this season, then claimed the second spot too with an effort of 246/4, and even chased down a 199-run target in just 16.1 overs. A difference of over five in the net run rate of the two teams aptly highlights the chasm that has existed in their performances, but law of averages suggests an upset might be in store come Thursday.

Form Guide

SFU:  W W W W W

SEO: L L L L L

SFU vs SEO Head to Head in T20s

San Francisco Unicorns and Seattle Orcas faced each other twice in MLC 2024, with the Unicorns comfortably running out winners on both occassions by 23 runs and six wickets resepctively. In the first encounter, the Orcas were restricted to 142/6 in pursuit of 165 after Liam Plunkett scalped for 3/26 to back-up Matthew Short's half-century. Five days later, San Francisco chased down Seattle's 152/7 in just 14.2 overs, with Finn Allen playing a blistering 30-ball knock of 77 to claim man of the match honours.

SFU 2-0 SEO

Pitch and Weather

Dallas has emerged as a batting paradise in Major League Cricket 2025, with an average first innings score upwards of 200 after seven games at the Grand Prairie Stadium this season. This includes a first-innings total of 246/4 achieved by San Francisco Unicorns on June 23 against MI New York, a day after Washington Freedom completed a tournament record 223-run chase against Washington Freedom on the same ground. The deck seemingly only getts better for batting under lights with the ball zipping through better to the bat, as is evidenced by just one victory for the team batting first and six victories for the team chasing this season. Expect the upcoming encounter to play out no differently. 

The match is expected to be played under mostly clear skies with intermittent cloud cover for company. The temperature will likely hover around the 30 degrees Celsius mark and gradually dip as the night matures.    

Team News

Finn Allen is expected to return for the San Francisco Unicorns after missing the previous game with ilness. Romario Shepherd will likely make way to accomodate the high-flying Kiwi who is currently the top run-getter of the team, unless Allen decides to take the gloves which opens up the possibility of dropping Tim Seifert. The rest of the team should remain unchanged, considering the management would not not want to alter a winning combination.

Seattle Orcas are likely to field the same eleven as the previous game unless Obed McCoy retakes his spot in the lineup over Gerald Coetzee who made his franchise debut in their last game.

SFU Probable XI: Matthew Short (c), Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Tim Seifert (wk), Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Romario Shepherd, Hassan Khan, Karima Gore, Xavier Bartlett, Liam Plunkett, Haris Rauf, Brody Couch  

SEO Probable XI: David Warner, Kyle Mayers, Shayan Jahangir (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Aaron Jones, Heinrich Klaasen (c), Sikandar Raza, harmeet Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Gerald Coetzee, Cameron Gannon 

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