MLC 2025
Milne became the fourth bowler to take a five-wicket haul in MLC © MLC
Adam Milne ripped through Seattle Orcas’ line-up with a five-wicket haul to help Texas Super Kings secure a comfortable 51-run win on Saturday evening, and retain their hopes of qualifying in the top-two of the league stage. Orcas, with a loss in their last league game, are now languishing in the second-last spot on the table with their qualification hopes to the playoffs resting on the result of the MI New York-Washington Freedom contest on Sunday.
Put in to bat, Super Kings made an quick start, with Smit Patel cutting loose in the opening over by cracking Sikandar Raza for three boundaries. However, Bjorn Fortuin had the southpaw in check for the rest of the powerplay before he toe-ended his attempted heave to mid wicket in the last over of the powerplay.
Run scoring was a bit challenging early on, with TSK managing to notch up only 53 runs in the first eight overs. Sai Teja Mukammalla’s early run out only added to the woes. However, du Plessis made good use of the start and broke free against Cameron Gannon in the 12th over. He brought up his fifty with a boundary through mid off and then pulled a six over cow corner.
Kyle Mayers and Jessy Singh too bore the brunt of his attack in the following overs, with the former being smashed for two sixes in the 14th. He had the company of Shubham Ranjane who kept the aggression going after a slowish start to his innings. However, du Plessis, who was struggling to get the big hits going in the latter half of his innings retired himself out on 91, ahead of the last over of the innings.
The duo by then had brought up their respective half-centuries en route to a blazing 130-run stand which set the stage for Super Kings’ total of 188 for 4.
In response, Kyle Mayers led a watchful start in the run-chase. However, Milne cleaned up David Warner on 9 and had Shayan Jahangir dismissed for a duck to begin Orcas’ slide in the fifth over. Familiar batting concerns cropped up yet against for Orcas as they struggled to keep up with the scoring rate, and losing wickets at regular intervals.
Mayers looked to counterattack soon after the twin dismissal, but similar attempts by the other batters proved counter-productive as the spin duo of Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad kept a check through the middle overs, picking a brace each.
Shimron Hetmyer took apart Donovan Ferreira for a couple of boundaries and a six in the 12th over, but that was merely an exception to an innings that was otherwise dominated by the TSK bowlers. Hetmyer couldn’t make much of the dropped chance, when he was on 19. Similar sparks of aggression were followed by Harmeet Singh, who tonked Marcus Stoinis for a couple of sixes in the 15th over, but there wasn’t much to sustain any threat.
The game was slipping away from Orcas and they eventually folded up for 137 with Milne returning to clean up the tail.
Brief Scores: Texas Super Kings 188/4 in 20 overs (Faf du Plessis 91, Shubham Ranjane 65; Cameron Gannon 1-35) beat Seattle Orcas 137 in 18.4 overs (Kyle Mayers 35, Shimron Hetmyer 26; Adam Milne 5-23, Akeal Hosein 2-24) by 51 runs
© Cricbuzz
