Who is Sanjay Krishnamurthi? 5 interesting facts about the San Francisco Unicorns batter who scored 79* in MLC clash vs Washington Freedom
On Monday, July 22, in the Major League Cricket (MLC) 20th match, USA batter Sanjay Krishnamurthi stole the show. San Francisco captain Corey Anderson won the toss and asked the Washington Freedom to bat first, who concluded their innings at 174/3 in 15.3 overs before the rain halted the play.
Captain Steven Smith (56 off 31 balls) and opener Travis Head (56 off 36 balls) struck fifties for Washington.
The San Francisco Unicorns were given the revised target of 177 in 14 overs. The Unicorns lost opener Finn Allen on the first ball. Then, Sanjay Krishnamurthi (79* off 42 balls) and Josh Inglis (45 off 17 balls) stitched together a 77-run partnership in 30 balls for the third wicket to bring back the Unicorns into the game.
In the end, Sanjay and Hassan Khan went berserk as they scored 55 runs in 22 balls to win the game for the Unicorns. Krishnamurthi smashed five fours and six maximums in his brilliant innings.
On the other hand, Hassan Khan scored an unbeaten 32 runs off 11 balls as the Unicorns won the game by six wickets with two balls remaining.
San Francisco Unicorns will face Washington Freedom on Thursday, July 25, in the Qualifier match at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
In the meantime, in this article, we will look at five interesting facts about the new star of Major League Cricket.
#1 Sanjay Krishnamurthi came to India in 2011
On June 2, 2003, Sanjay Krishnamurthi was born in Arizona. When Sanjay got fascinated with cricket after seeing the 2011 World Cup with his dad, his family decided to relocate to their native Bangalore.
In a conversation with Cricbuzz, Sanjay's father Satya Krishnamurthi said:
“Fortunately, I was able to spend a lot of time with him after our move over there and focus on cricket. We built cricket nets with a bowling machine for Sanjay in our backyard.”
#2 He was selected in the Spin Star talent hunt launched by Anil Kumble when he was 11
Sanjay Krishnamurthi initially started his career as a left-arm spinner. In 2022, during a conversation with the SIX Cricket Community, he said:
“At 11, I was selected in the Anil Kumble spin-star talent hunt. I was selected in the top 20.”
#3 Sanjay decided to focus more on batting after scoring runs in School cricket
In an interview with SIX Cricket Community, he discussed the transition from spinner to batter:
“In my last year of under 16, I scored a lot of runs, opening the batting for my school team, and then decided to focus more on batting that year.”
In the highly competitive Bangalore schools' cricket league, Sanjay went on to score more than 500 runs in six games. As a result, he was chosen for the Karnataka State Cricket Association U-16 team.
#4 He came back to Houston in 2020
Sanjay came to Houston at the start of 2020 to participate in a USA Cricket training camp. From then on, he has concentrated on his US cricket career. After the players' draft, Sanjay was selected for the Minor League Cricket competition in the United States in June 2021.
#5 The right-handed batter made his international debut in 2021
Sanjay made his international debut in an ODI against Nepal in 2021. He has played three ODI matches in his career and only managed to score 13 runs. Sanjay Krishnamurthi has shown his class in the MLC and will be looking to score some runs for his nation if he gets the opportunity in the future.