Delhi: San Francisco Unicorns captain Matthew Short’s powerful inning of 121 runs went in vain against Washington Freedom on Friday in the Challenger match of Major League Cricket (MLC) 2026. Freedom, batting first, had set a target of 239 runs for the Unicorns, in response Short remained at the crease till the end by scoring a century.

But he failed to make his team win the match. Freedom, captained by Steve Smith, has made it to the finals of the league by winning the match by seven runs.

Freedom made a big score due to the strong innings of Gaus, Smith and Owen.

Unicorns won the toss and invited Freedom to bat first. Steve Smith and Mitchell Owen gave a flying start to Freedom. Both of them added 83 runs in just 36 balls for the first wicket. Owen was out after scoring 42 runs in 19 balls with the help of five sixes and two fours.

Whereas, Smith returned to the pavilion after scoring 43 runs in 20 balls with the help of four fours and three sixes.

After both of them were out, player of the match Andries Gaus batted brilliantly. Gaus scored 73 runs in 40 balls. He hit 8 fours and three sixes in his innings, due to which Freedom scored 238 runs at the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. For Unicorns, Xavier Bartlett took maximum three wickets.

Matthew Short’s unbeaten century went in vain

Captain Matthew Short played a strong innings for the Unicorns, who were chasing the mountain-like target of 239. Apart from him, no other batsman could even cross the score of 30.

Short, who came at number three, was batting aggressively from one end. Short hit 11 fours and 8 sixes in his innings. Short completed his century by hitting a four on the first ball of the 18th over. Unicorns needed 29 runs from the last 12 balls. Short was still at the crease.

It seemed that he would make the team win and take it to the finals. But, Saurabh Netrawalkar bowled a brilliant 19th over. Saurabh put Freedom in a strong position by giving just seven runs in the over. After this, Freedom needed 22 runs in the last over. Short increased the excitement in the match by hitting a six and a four in the first two balls off Mitchell Owen.

However, after this Owen came back and gave only four runs in the next four balls, due to which Freedom won the match by seven runs. With this win, Freedom has made it to the final of Major League Cricket 2026, where it will face Los Angeles Knight Riders on Sunday, July 19 in Oakland.