3 lessons for San Francisco Unicorns after defeat in MLC 2024 final
The San Francisco Unicorns ended up as the runner-up of the second edition of the Major League Cricket (MLC). Their spirited run up until the final was brought to a halt by a resurgent Washington Freedom side, who romped away to the title with a thumping win.
The second season comes across as a huge improvement for the San Francisco Unicorns, who were one of the two teams that failed to make it to the playoffs in the inaugural edition. The incorporation of youth and the emergence of local players has certainly made their season a success, but there are still some drawbacks that prevented them from clinching the title.
The experience of seasoned players like Pat Cummins and Finn Allen certainly made a huge difference, while local players Hassan Khan and left-arm pacer also made their presence felt around the star players.
However, in franchise T20 leagues, you need to be as perfect as possible to claim silverware, like Washington Freedom showed in the tournament. On that note, let us take a look at three lessons that the San Francisco Unicorns can take from their second-placed finish in the 2024 Major League Cricket.
#1 Developing a reliable sixth bowling option
Given Haris Rauf and Pat Cummins' shaky past in the shortest format, despite their obvious prowess coupled with the fact that Corey Anderson primarily played as a pure batter, the team needed a sixth bowling option desperately. Had Matthew Short stayed on, it should not have been an issue, but that was not the case after the first set of matches.
Once the part-time off-spinner left the tournament midway, they could not a decent sixth bowling option in the playing XI without risking the batting depth.
Almost every other team had a handy bowling option from their top six, whether it be Rachin Ravindra, Aaron Hardie, Kieron Pollard, or Sunil Narine. The Unicorns lacked such versatility in their setup, and were often forced to go with five sole options, without a frontline spinner that too. While Hassan Khan did a commendable job, an additional spinner would have worked wonders for the team to assume more control in the middle phase
Not having a frontline spinner did work out for Washington Freedom, who made use of all-rounders Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Maxwell. However, multiple options coupled with experience and differences in prowess also made a telling difference.
#2 Strengthening the middle order
San Francisco Unicorns had a stacked top three of Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, and Matthew Short, arguably tailormade for the shortest format.
Earlier in the season, Short had joked about an unofficial contest between the top order batters around who would hit the most sixes among them. That's how confident they were. However, it did not pan out like that.
While Allen ended up being the third-highest run-scorer, Fraser-McGurk had a tournament to forget while Short had to head back to England for his commitment with the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred 2024.
To make matters worse, the middle order could not handle the top order's short comings. After Allen, the team's second-leading run-scorer turned out to be Hassan Khan, an all-rounder batting in the late middle-order.
The likes of Inglis, Rutherford, and skipper Anderson himself combined scored just 310 runs, making it difficult for the Unicorns to continue with the momentum when the top-order fired or when they faltered.
The latter occurred during the final when they were reduced to 30-3 inside the powerplay. Instead of putting up a fight, the collapse continued to 68-7, with the middle-order hardly giving any resistance.
#3 Stability in bowling combination
San Francisco Unicorns started the tournament off with a combination of Couch, Raud, Short, Abrar, and Plunkett. By the time the finals came calling a mere three weeks later, only one of them was in the playing XI.
The arrivals of Cummins and Hassan Khan proving he is a reliable option with the ball, led the franchise to change their composition altogether. Abrar Ahmed was dropped for the sake of batting depth while Hassan Khan continued to feature as the sole spinner.
MLC 2024 was hardly a tournament that was dominated by spinners, but they sure made their presence felt to make a huge impact. With the Unicorns already crippled with only five bowlers, as mentioned earlier, they could not manage to squeeze in a second spinner and the four-pacer formula did not work out in the latter stages.
They tried Tajinder Singh out in the middle, but it did not turn out well.