Bowlers rescue TSK after batting wobble

Texas Super Kings' mini-wobble with the bat didn't haunt them as their bowlers – led by medium-pacer Amshi de Silva – downed San Francisco Unicorns to defend 161/8 in the MLC.

Faf du Plessis (40 off 24) and Donovan Ferreira (45 off 28) made telling impacts but the rest of TSK's batting largely folded. Reduced to 96/5, they limped to 161/8, and the bowlers delivered an all-round performance that caught the Unicorns 22 runs short.

Openers du Plessis and Saiteja Mukkamalla added a swift 72-run stand that took the team past the Powerplay without loss. Du Plessis led the scoring before falling in the eighth over to a diving Finn Allen catch. TSK then lost Rilee Rossouw, Milind Kumar and Shubham Ranjane for single-digit scores while Mukkamalla ended on 36 off 30.

Ferreira arrived at 96/5, adding 40 off 27 with Wiaan Mulder (4 runs) to push TSK past 150. Ferreira hit four sixes and two fours in his 45 before falling.

Amshi de Silva led the early destruction, dismissing openers Allen and Lhuan-dre Pretorius plus Connor Esterhuizen as SFU slumped to 37/3. Sanjay Krishnamurthi was run out, and despite Matthew Short and Hassan Khan's efforts, SFU were six down before halfway.

Brody Couch tried to revive the chase with Hammad Azam and Peter Siddle, but Amshi returned to clean up Hammad, finishing with 4-28. Couch kept swinging, hitting Adam Milne and Hardus Viljoen for sixes, but Milne eventually dismissed him with a cutter and wrapped up victory by bowling Ghulam Mudassar.

Brief Scores: Texas Super Kings 161/8 in 20 overs (Donovan Ferreira 45, Faf du Plessis 40; Ghulam Mudassar 2-30, Brody Couch 2-42) beat San Francisco Unicorns 139 in 17.4 overs (Matthew Short 28; Amshi de Silva 4-28, Abhimanyu Lamba 2-22, Adam Milne 2-29) by 22 runs