Knight Riders hold nerve to win MLC in last-ball finish

LA Knight Riders won their first-ever Major League Cricket title in dramatic fashion, clinching it off the last ball of the final. Last-ball thriller The final went down to the wire. LA Knight Riders held their nerve to get over the line with no balls to spare. It’s the franchise’s maiden MLC championship, making history for the Knight Riders in the league. High-pressure finish. With everything on the line in the last over, LA stayed calm and pulled off the win to lift the trophy. It went right down to the wire with Washington Freedom needing 14 off the final over. Shadley van Schalkwyk conceded a six first ball to Obus Pienaar, but closed it out with a death-bowling masterclass, which had shades of Dwayne Bravo, his coach at Knight Riders. That six brought Pienaar his maiden T20 half-century, but van Schalkwyk yorked him next ball before having Ian Holland holing out third ball of the over. Lockie Ferguson squeezed a four next ball to narrow the equation to four needed off two balls, but van Schalkwyk held his nerve and length to give up just singles off the final two balls, securing the title by the barest of margins. Slow start, fast finish Colin Munro was slow off the blocks, but Fletcher made up for it at the other end. Fletcher goes after the bowling Smashed 3 fours off Ben Dwarshuis in the powerplay Used Lockie Ferguson’s pace to flat-bat him through covers for four Followed it with a straight six By the end of 6 overs, Fletcher had 38 of Knight Riders’ 54. He did almost all the scoring. Chaudhary strikes twice in one over Nikhil Chaudhary made an instant impact: Wrong'un to bowl Andre Fletcher for 47 off 27 Ripping legbreak next ball to bowl Andre Russell for a duck Knight Riders went from flying to 2 down. Ravindra removes Munro and Narine, Munro broke loose with 3 sixes in a row off Chaudhary in the 10th, but fell for 40 off 29 to Ravindra, holing out to long-off Sunil Narine was promoted to No.5 but Ravindra had him chopping on for a duck. Knight Riders slumped to 111/4 in the 12th. Matthew Tromp took charge late. He was especially good against spin, smashing 25 off 12 vs Ravindra and Chaudhary with some sparkling strokes to drag LA past 160. Van Schalkwyk leaked 38 runs in his first three overs, but with Bravo egging him and his team-mates on from the edge of the boundary, he nailed his yorkers in the final over to deliver Knight Riders their first title. Van Schalkwyk, who was born in Cape Town and played some domestic cricket in South Africa, had rocked up in the USA with two suitcases. He has now won both the Major League and Minor League titles in his adopted country. Los Angeles Knight Riders 164 (Fletcher 47, Munro 40, Tromp 39, Dwarshuis 3-31, Owen 2-14, Ravindra 2-23, Chaudhary 2-32) beat Washington Freedom 163 for 9 (Pienaar 53, Gous 40, Narine 3-13, Holder 3-31, Van Schalkwyk 2-50) by one run