The Washington Freedom had a strong season and won the MLC 2024 championship by playing very well in the final game at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas. Captain Steve Smith was a key player, leading the team and scoring 88 runs from just 52 balls. This helped Freedom reach 207 runs in 20 overs. Then, Washington’s bowlers did an excellent job, winning by 96 runs, which was the biggest win of the season. Marco Jansen and Rachin Ravindra each took three wickets.
The best two teams of the season, Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns, had each won one game against the other before the final. In their earlier match, the Unicorns successfully chased a target of 177 runs in only 14 overs. The Freedom’s captain, Smith, played a crucial role in setting up the final’s win by scoring a fast 88 runs, increasing his total for the season to 336 runs with a strike rate of 148.67. Smith had to take on the challenge of setting a strong target because his regular opening partner, Travis Head, who had scored over 50 runs in five straight games before this, got out early. Head was dismissed for just 10 runs after Pat Cummins bowled a ball that Head accidentally hit to the fielders.
Smith had a slow beginning, scoring just 10 runs from his first 11 balls. However, he soon found his groove with help from Andries Gous, who hit two fours and a six off Cummins’ second over but was then out for a fast 21 runs from 14 balls. Smith’s gradual improvement resulted in a 49-run PowerPlay. He picked up speed during the middle overs, taking advantage of the field’s layout and the wind, and hit sixes off Carmi le Roux in the ninth over.
Smith achieved his half-century in 34 balls and kept raising the score. When Glenn Maxwell joined him, the scoring increased even more. The two Australians combined for 28 runs in Juanoy Drysdale’s 13th over, with Smith hitting a four and two sixes, bringing his total to five sixes for the match.
Smith’s turn at batting finished with 88 runs when Cummins threw a short ball that Smith didn’t hit well, missing the chance to score century in the finals Maxwell, who scored 40 runs in just 22 balls, was also out, caught by Josh Inglis. Even though Cummins did a good job in the final overs, Mukhtar Ahmed and Obus Pienaar managed to score 16 runs of Haris Rauf’s over, beating Washington’s previous highest score of the season, 206, which they set against the Texas Super Kings 10 days earlier.
Trying to reach 208 run the Unicorns had a difficult start when Jake Fraser-McGurk hit a ball from Marco Jansen into his own stumps. Things got worse when Jansen also got the talented Finn Allen out in a similar way. Then, Saurabh Netravalkar removed Sanjay Krishnamurthi, who had played a key role in the Unicorns’ successful chase against Washington a week before.
In the ninth over, the Unicorns were struggling with 56 runs and 6 wickets down, making it look like they were going to lose. Andrew Tye took two wickets in his second over, getting rid of Josh Inglis and Corey Anderson, which pretty much stopped any chance of them coming back. Jansen got his third wicket, and Ravindra took three more wickets to secure a big win for Washington Freedom.
