Short, Krishnamurthi take Unicorns to the top

A strong bowling performance led by a four-fer from Matthew Short and a three-wicket haul from Brody Couch helped the San Francisco Unicorns beat MI New York in the last game of the MLC 2026 season at Pomona.

On a tough and tacky surface, the Unicorns bowled the holders out for 104 before Sanjay Krishnamurthi's composed, unbeaten 48 took them over the line with 19 balls to spare. The victory provisionally moved the Unicorns to the top of the standings, although three other teams, including MINY, have the same number of points.

MINY's innings never got going once Short put them in to bat. Quinton de Kock fell for a golden duck, edging Xavier Bartlett behind in the first over. In the next, Couch found Monank Patel's edge on two occasions before the third time had a fielder at the end of it. Before the end of the Powerplay, MINY also lost Tajinder Dhillon to Short before Couch accounted for Shakib al Hasan.

The slide continued after the fielding restrictions when captain and in-form batter Nicholas Pooran dragged a Haris Rauf delivery back onto his stumps, leaving his side five down for 45. When Short dismissed Kieron Pollard for a nine-ball 2 in the ninth over, the MINY innings had screeched to a standstill. That they even got to 105 before folding off the last ball of the innings was down to a steady 21 from Corbin Bosch.

Even with a tricky pitch, this was going to be a fairly straightforward chase. The Unicorns lost Lhuan-dre Pretorius in the first over but captain Short backed up his four-wicket haul with a string of boundaries to ease the pressure. He fell just after the Powerplay for 21 but the Unicorns were already halfway there. Krishnamurthi essayed a sequence of high-quality strokes and batted through to ensure the chase was done with more than three overs to spare, giving the Unicorns the net run rate boost to climb to the top of the standings heading into the crucial final leg of league fixtures in Dallas.

Brief scores: MI New York 104 in 20 overs (Corbin Bosch 21; Matthew Short 4-17, Brody Couch 3-32) lost to San Francisco Unicorns 105/5 in 16.5 overs (Sanjay Krishnamurthi 48*; Tristan Luus 2-21) by five wickets