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San Francisco Unicorns vs Washington Freedom Major League Cricket Predictions - Shootout between Pretorius and Owen

Simon Lewis

Editor

Last updated: 28 Jun 2026

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Simon Lewis 28 Jun 2026

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The Unicorns have yet to hit 200 this season but their bowlers have secured two wins.
The Freedom have been posting high scores but have struggled to defend those totals.
Both teams claimed thrilling wins inside the last three balls in their last match.

Expired

Lhuan-dre Pretorius has dominated the bowling in the MLC (Getty Images).

San Francisco Unicorns vs Washington Freedom Predictions

The two teams come into this clash with identical records and results in their last four matches, and with both boasting high-scoring openers who will be the key to victory in this clash.

San Francisco Unicorns vs Washington Freedom Predictions
Head-to-Head
San Francisco Unicorns Form
Washington Freedom Form
Team news

San Francisco Unicorns’ Lhuan-dre Pretorius has scored 65, 58, 69* & 87 in 5 knocks.
San Francisco Unicorns’ Aaron Hardie has scored 20, 56* & 28 in his last 3 innings.
San Francisco Unicorns’ Brody Couch took 2/42 & 3/41 in his last 2 matches.
Washington Freedom’s Donovan Ferreira has scored 45, 18* & 44* in his last 3 knocks.
Washington Freedom’s Mitchell Owen has scored 61, 155 & 77 in his last 4 matches.
Saiteja Mukkamalla has scored 36, 38 & 37 in 3 matches.
Washington Freedom’s Marco Jansen took 3/33 & 1/35 in his last 2 matches.

Head-to-Head

San Francisco Unicorns have won two and lost three of their last five Major League Cricket matches against the Washington Freedom.

San Francisco Unicorns Form

The Unicorns scraped home with two balls to spare against the Orcas to secure their second win in four matches.

The Unicorns bowlers put in a good stint with the ball but couldn’t prevent the Orcas from posting a competitive score of 191 off their 19.2 overs. Brody Couch (3/41) starred with the ball, but he was backed up by Xavier Bartlett, Ghulam Mudassar and Matthew Short, who each picked up two wickets.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius hit six sixes and nine fours in another explosive innings, smashing 87 off just 39 balls. His only support came from Aaron Hardie (28 off 20) and Brody Couch (26* off 14) as they sneaked home for a two-wicket win with two balls in hand.

Washington Freedom Form

The Freedom notched up win number two for the season by beating the Super Kings in a last-ball thriller in their last match.

Playing his first match of the MLC season, Nikhil Chaudhary (2/29) was the pick of the Freedom bowlers, while Amila Aponso bowled his two overs at just 6.50 runs to the over as the Super Kings posted a competitive score of 185/4 off their 20 overs.

Mitchell Owen (77 off 35) and Steven Smith (30 off 21) got the Freedom off to a flyer, adding 91 off 7.5 overs. They then lost nine wickets for 89 runs, only to be saved by Nikhil Chaudhary (27* off 19) who smashed a last-ball six to win the match.

Team news

Both teams have no injury news to report. The Freedom will be looking for a stronger contribution from their bowlers while the Unicorns’ top order is under pressure to start offering Lhuan Dre Pretorius some support up top.

San Francisco Unicorns (possible XI): Matthew Short (c), Lhuan Dre Pretorius, Finn Allen, Connor Esterhuizen, Sanjay Krishnamurthy, Hassan Khan, Hammad Azam, Brody Couch, Ghulam Mudassar, Peter Siddle, Haris Rauf.

Washington Freedom (possible XI): Steven Smith (c), Mitchell Owen, Mark Chapman, Andries Gous, Glenn Maxwell, Jack Edwards, Obus Pienaar, Marco Jansen, Ian Holland, Amila Aponso, Saurabh Netravalkar.

Verdict

San Francisco Unicorns v Washington Freedom

San Francisco Unicorns are tipped to win, with Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Brody Couch, Mitchell Owen and Marco Jansen backed to star with bat and ball.

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