SFU vs SEO | All-round shows from Matthew Short and Romario Shepherd push Unicorns into the playoffs

‌San Francisco Unicorns stormed into the playoffs of the Major League Cricket 2025 campaign with yet another clinical performance over Seattle Orcas at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Thursday. Skipper Matthew Short and all-rounder Romario Shepherd scored quickfire half-centuries before picking up three and two wickets, respectively, to guide SFU to a 32-run victory, their sixth-consecutive win this season.

After being put into bat, the Aussie pair of Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk (34 off 21) added 68 runs in 40 balls, after Finn Allen’s dismissal early on, to power SFU to 86/1 within the eighth over. But the set duo’s dismissal in the space of six balls triggered a collapse as the side slid from 86/1 to 103/6. However, Shepherd’s 31-ball 56 helped SFU claw their way back to post 176/8 in 20 overs. Short hit seven fours and two sixes in his knock of 52 off 29 balls while Shepherd smashed four sixes and fours during his innings as the side raked in 46 runs in the last four overs. For Orcas, left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh shone with a spell of 3/22 in four overs while South African pacer Gerald Coetzee also had three wickets to his name.

Chasing 177, SEO had a good start scoring 59/0 in the powerplay before losing their way during the middle overs. Pacer Haris Rauf ran through the SEO middle-order picking up 4/32 in four overs as the batting side lost their seven wickets for just 61 runs. Shayan Jahangir hit three sixes and four at the top of the order to top-score for SEO with a 22-ball 40 while off-spinner Short bowled a tight spell of 3/12 in four overs. The Orcas batters, barring Shimron Hetmyer (30 off 16), surrendered without any resistance as medium pacer Shepherd also joined the party picking up two wickets to dismiss SEO for 144 with 10 balls to spare.

What a comeback!

ON Fire!

Taken!

Breakthrough!

On fire!

POM!

What a Player!

Shepherd!

This team 🤯🔥

Well played!

Nice!