Unbeaten SFU cruise to playoffs with sixth straight win

The San Francisco Unicorns secured its sixth straight win of MLC 2025 to cruise into playoffs. Seattle Orcas suffered their fifth consecutive defeat.

Matthew Short led the way for SFU with a half-century and then took three wickets. Romario Shepherd also hit a half-century and picked up two wickets. Haris Rauf dismantled the Orcas middle-order to set up a 32-run victory.

SFU lost Finn Allen early but Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk put on a 68-run stand. Harmeet Singh dismissed both Short and Fraser-McGurk, along with Hassan Khan. Gerald Coetzee and Obed McCoy left SFU in trouble at 103/6 before Shepherd finished the innings with a 22-run 20th over.

Orcas were in control early with Shayan Jahangir hitting two sixes off Carmi le Roux and then smashing Bartlett for 15 runs in the second over. Jahangir and David Warner put on 59 in the PowerPlay.

Shepherd and Short then took control, dismissing Jahangir, Warner, and Kyle Mayers. Haris Rauf then removed Heinrich Klaasen.

Shimron Hetmyer and Sujit Nayak attempted a late revival but Short dismissed Nayak. Rauf then took out Coetzee and Hetmyer to end the Orcas innings.

Brief Scores:

San Francisco Unicorns 176/8 in 20 overs (Romario Shepherd 56, Matthew Short 52; Harmeet Singh 3-22, Gerald Coetzee 3-34) beat Seattle Orcas 144 in 18.2 overs (Shayan Jahangir 40; Haris Rauf 4-32, Matthew Short 3-12, Romario Shepherd 2-16) by 32 runs