The commentary is not available for this match. Please check the scorecard for latest updates.
Thanks a lot for joining me, Mohul Bhowmick and my buddy Lavil Saldanha, for this exciting game in the Major League Cricket competition between Seattle Orcas and Washington Freedom at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas. We hope you enjoyed this brisk showing by the Orcas, who now take on San Francisco Unicorns tomorrow. Until next time, ciao!
Wayne Parnell, Seattle Orcas captain: I know that we are judged on winning games, but I am also pleased to note that the process went well. Some of the local players did well too, and that was very nice. Pretty happy with the way we performed today. Tomorrow, we might have to play on a different surface. We have to keep things simple. Our boys did extremely well but we go again tomorrow. We have to keep our focus on the process.
Moises Henriques, Washington Freedom captain: It was a good game of cricket. It is a brand-new tournament, and the facilities here are amazing. I'm pretty happy to be here. I'm very excited for the next matches. I don't think the lights had a big role to play. It got easier to bat when the ball got older. We fought our way to the mid-140s. We had our fair share of chances, and if we had clung on to them, maybe it would have been different. However, the boys gave their best today.
Imad Wasim, Player of the Match: I thought that the wicket was very good in the first half. In the second half, it was a bit challenging. Perhaps it was because of the lights. This helped in the ball skidding on the surface. We focussed on taking singles and doubles- basically rotating the strike. We knew that we did not want to take too many risks and just grind it out.
Shimron Hetmyer: It was just a little bit difficult. It was spinning a bit but as a player, you have to fight and play to win. I think it is about what the team wants. I'm a team man and ready to do anything for the team. It's pretty hot here and will take some time to get acclimatised. We need to focus again today. We need to correct ourselves just a bit tomorrow and then we go again. That's the objective we need to have throughout the tournament
Seattle Orcas beat Washington Freedom by 5 wickets!
Imad Wasim and Shimron Hetmyer finished off the job for Seattle Orcas quite comfortably, and ensured that they did not have to face any hiccups while doing so. Earlier in their innings, it was thanks to Nauman Anwar that they managed to get this far.
The right-handed opener was unfortunate to miss out on his half-century by a couple of runs, but his stellar showing gave a big cushion to the batsmen coming after him. His invaluable 48 will hold him in good stead going further ahead in this competition.
The likes of Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortje and Shemron Hetmyer tried their best to keep the scoring rate of the Orcas down, but they were unsuccessful. Although Hetmyer departed off the last over, Shubham Ranjane came in at number seven and completed the final rites for the Orcas.
This win will give a lot of momentum to the Orcas. Washington Freedom, led by the Australian Henriques, will have to dig deep to try and find solutions for what went wrong for them today. They did well for themselves in the powerplay but lost the plot in the middle overs. It might have also been that they took Anwar too lightly while focussing too much on his partners at the other end.
Ranjane does it in style for the Orcas! All the while staying calm and composed at the wicket.
19.4 Marco Jansen to Shubham Ranjane, FOUR! RANJANE FINISHES IT IN SOME STYLE! Once again, Jansen goes down the pads of the batter, Ranjane manages to get bat to ball and sends it running away to the boundary ropes for a four to end the game. Seattle Orcas win the match by 5 wickets and register their maiden victory in the MLC
And just like that, with a flick, the scores are level!
19.3 Marco Jansen to Shubham Ranjane, FOUR! Full-length delivery going down the legside, Ranjane flicks that one away and the ball runs away to the backward square leg boundary for a four. Scores are level now
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Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas
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