Narine, Holder lead LA Knight Riders to maiden MLC title

Sunil Narine and Jason Holder crushed Washington Freedom under the weight of their experience to deliver LA Knight Riders their maiden MLC title at the Oakland Coliseum. The Knight Riders broke a potential duopoly with a big bowling performance. Obus Pienaar's 24-ball 53 nearly sullied those efforts, but it wasn't enough.

The Knight Riders had only 164 to defend. Holder trusted Narine, and the champion spinner came through. For the third time, Narine dismissed Mitchell Owen, then got Rachin Ravindra to top-edge a sweep. Steve Smith was cleaned up by Narine for just 8, pushing the chase to 29/3.

Andries Gous revived the chase with Nikhil Chaudhary, adding 65 off 52 until Holder took Chaudhary for his 400th T20 wicket. Holder then had Ben Dwarshuis caught. Gous fell attempting an awkward reverse-scoop, chipping to Russell.

Pienaar arrived with a no-holds barred attitude, striking big sixes. 63 off 30 became 44 off 18. He slammed two sixes off Shadley van Shalkwyk to make it 29 off 12. Another over left Freedom needing 14 off 6. Pienaar hit a first-ball six, but van Shalkwyk cleaned him up with a yorker. Ian Holland holed out to Holder. The game came down to 2 off 1. Lahiru Milantha was run out to give a jaw-dropping finish.

Earlier, Colin Munro and Andre Fletcher added 54 in the Powerplay. Chaudhary dismissed Fletcher and Andre Russell for a duck. Munro and Matthew Tromp took four sixes off the spinner to reach 101/2. Ravindra had Munro caught and cleaned up Narine. Dwarshuis took Tromp and Rovman Powell, leaving LA KR at 136/6. Dwarshuis's third wicket was Holder. Saif Badar slammed a six but Owen wrapped up the innings.

Brief Scores: Los Angeles Knight Riders 164 in 19.4 overs (Andre Fletcher 47, Colin Munro 40, Matthew Tromp 39; Ben Dwarshuis 3-31, Rachin Ravindra 2-23) beat Washington Freedom 163/9 (Obus Pienaar 53; Sunil Narine 3-13, Jason Holder 3-31) by 1 run