Gous, Ravindra outdo Pooran as Washington Freedom make case for 2nd spot

Andries Gous's 54-ball 96 and Rachin Ravindra's 60 off 30 powered Washington Freedom to a five-wicket win over MI New York. Freedom moved to second spot and will await the result of the TSK vs LAKR match to see if they retain that position.

Despite most MINY batters failing, skipper Nicholas Pooran struck 86 off 44 (8 sixes) to take his side to 187/6. However, Gous (4 fours, 8 sixes) and Ravindra (5 fours, 2 sixes) put on a 116-run stand in under 12 overs to set up the chase.

Batting first, MINY lost Quinton de Kock early. Pooran hit a six off Mitchell Owen and Kunwarjeet Singh got a boundary off Nikhil Chaudhary, taking MINY to 75/2 at halfway. Pooran accelerated, hitting two fours and two sixes off Owen to bring up a 31-ball fifty. The 90-run third-wicket partnership ended when Kunwarjeet fell for 26. Pooran continued, hitting two sixes off Chaudhary before falling lbw to Netravalkar. MINY lost five wickets for 37 runs to finish just short of 190.

In reply, Owen struck a six off Trent Boult but Freedom were in trouble at 29/2 after five overs. Gous and Ravindra got going, taking 15 off Ehsan Adil's over to end the Powerplay at 44/2. The 100 came up in the 12th over before Ravindra hit three fours off Boult for a 26-ball fifty. Gous hit two sixes off Rushil Ugarkar, his first maximum bringing up his 50 off 38 balls. Ravindra then fell, but Gous kept attacking with two fours and two sixes off Romario Shepherd, and two more sixes off Adil. Gous fell four short of a hundred, but Maxwell finished it off as Freedom won in 18.3 overs.

Brief scores: MI New York 187/8 in 20 overs (Pooran 86 off 44, Kunwarjeet 26 off 20; Ravindra 2-6) lost to Washington Freedom 190/5 in 18.3 overs (Gous 96 off 54, Ravindra 60 off 30; Boult 2-33) by 5 wickets.