SFU vs WF | Finn Allen special helps San Francisco Unicorns thrash Washington Freedom in MLC 2025 opener

‌Brief Scores: SFU 269/5 (20) [(Finn Allen 151(51), Hassan Khan 38 (18); Jack Edwards 2/39(4)] beat WF 146/10(13.1) [(Rachin Ravindra 42(17), Mitchell Oven 39(20); Haris Rauf 3/30(3.1), Hassan Khan 3/38(4)] by 123 runs.

Finn Allen went on a six-hitting spree as San Francisco Unicorns thrashed defending champion Washington Freedom by 123 runs in the opening match of Major League Cricket 2025 in Oakland on Friday. The Kiwi batter smashed 19 sixes, a record for most sixes by any batter in T20 cricket, and five fours in his knock of 151 from just 51 balls.

Batting first, Allen started aggressively with a six and four off pacer Ben Sears while his New Zealand teammate Tim Seifert smashed two sixes and a four off Saurabh Netravalkar in the next over. Allen continued his big-hitting with a six and four in Rachin Ravindra’s first over before targeting Sears again with two sixes as SFU raced to 67/2 at the end of the powerplay. 

Sanjay Krishnamurthi, who came in at four, smashed four sixes off Ravindra with Allen hitting three big ones in the next over from Mitchell Oven with the scoring surge continuing in the middle overs. Three more sixes off countryman Glenn Phillips in the 11th over took the opener into his eighties.

Allen took just 34 balls to reach the three-figure mark, the fastest hundred in the history of MLC. The Kiwi opener did not show any signs of slowing down taking on the pace duo of Netravalkar and Ian Holland scoring 40 runs in two overs as SFU plundered 153 runs from over six to 16 in the middle phase. 

He scripted another record, this time for the fastest 150 in T20s reaching the landmark in only 49 balls and when he was dismissed a ball later, Allen also topped the charts for the highest individual score in MLC with a 51-ball 151. SFU finished at 269/5, the highest total yet in MLC, on the back of Allen’s pyrotechnics and some lusty blows from Hassan Khan (38* off 18) towards the end.

In reply, Washington Freedom could manage only 146 despite having an excellent start which saw them reach 104/2 in just seven overs. But WF did not have the stomach for a fight once the openers Ravindra and Oven departed for 42 off 17 balls and 39 off 20, respectively. They folded out in the 14th over to hand a huge win to SFU to start the campaign on the wrong foot.