Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Brody Couch help Unicorns pull off thrilling chase
Brody Couch took three wickets and smashed a 14-ball cameo of 26 runs to lead the San Francisco Unicorns to a thrilling win over the Seattle Orcas. Chasing 192, the Unicorns were powered by Lhuan-dre Pretorius' 87 off 39 balls, but regular wickets threatened the chase until Couch's late assault sealed the victory with two wickets and two balls to spare.
The Unicorns' chase began poorly as Finn Allen departed for a duck in the first over. Despite Pretorius hitting a six and a four off Jasdeep Singh, the Unicorns slumped to 26 for 3, losing Matthew Short and Sanjay Krisnamurthi quickly.
Pretorius counter-attacked, hitting sixes and fours in each remaining Powerplay over. He reached a 23-ball half-century, supported by Aaron Hardie. The pair added 99 off 48 deliveries before Hardie fell in the 12th over to Dasun Shanaka. Two more wickets left the Unicorns at 136 for 6, with Pretorius out for a scintillating 87 off 39 balls, including six sixes.
Xavier Bartlett then plundered 17 off the next over by Harmeet Singh. Needing 30 off the final four overs, Cameron Gannon's 17th over yielded just one run. With eight down, the Unicorns required 23 off the last two overs. Couch hit a six off Ottneil Baartman in the 19th over. After Haris Rauf took a single off the first ball of the final over, Couch smashed Shanaka over mid-wicket for a six and edged a four to seal the chase.
The Orcas, who came close to winning on successive nights, rued a batting collapse. After reaching 138 for 2 in 10 overs, they collapsed to 8 for 42, with Couch taking the key wickets of Matthew Breetzke and Shimron Hetmyer. They were bowled out for 191.
Brief scores: Seattle Orcas 191 in 19.2 overs (Shayan Jahangir 62, Matthew Breetzke 51; Brody Couch 3-41, Matthew Short 2-12) lost to San Francisco Unicorns 192/8 in 19.4 overs (Lhuan-dre Pretorius 87, Brody Couch 26*; Marcus Stoinis 2-29) by two wickets.
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