Los Angeles Knight Riders 196 (Fletcher 40, Powell 37, Jasdeep 3-29, Baartman 3-36, Shanaka 2-59) beat Seattle Orcas 115 (Russell 3-8, van Schalkwyk 3-17, le Roux 2-17, Narine 2-18) by 81 runs
Sent in, LAKR kept losing wickets and were eventually bowled out off the last ball of their innings, but small contributions all the way down their line-up took them to a sizeable 196. Colin Munro and Andre Fletcher set the innings up with a 58-run opening stand, which ended off the first ball after the powerplay, and Jason Holder made a 14-ball 23 from No. 6. But the most impactful innings of the day came from Powell.
At the end of the 16th over, in which Harmeet Singh conceded just two runs and dismissed Holder, LAKR were 138 for 5 and looking at a total in the 170-180 range. Then Powell tore into Dasun Shanaka in the 17th over, hitting him for 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 before falling off the last ball of the over, top-edging a short one to short third. Despite a subdued final over, in which Jasdeep Singh took three wickets while only conceding four runs, LAKR finished just four short of 200.
And that total proved more than adequate, particularly after Narine, coming on as first change, dismissed Tim Seifert and Matthew Breetzke to leave SO 33 for 2 in the fifth over. With Carmi le Roux following up with two more quick strikes, SO ended the powerplay at 43 for 4.
The wickets didn’t stop tumbling, with Shadley van Schalkwyk and Andre Russell taking three each to clean up the middle and lower order. Harmeet (25 off 17) was the only SO batter to cross 20 as they folded for 115 with 4.3 overs still remaining.
