Edwards’ four-for sends Washington Freedom top of Major League Cricket
Jack Edwards’ four-wicket burst dismantled San Francisco Unicorns and Steven Smith’s fifty sealed the chase, carrying Washington Freedom from the foot of the Major League Cricket table to the top.
Jul 5, 2026
One three-and-a-half-over spell was all it took to redraw the top of the Major League Cricket table. Jack Edwards ripped out San Francisco Unicorns’ middle order in Pomona, and by the time Steven Smith had guided the chase home, Washington Freedom had climbed from sixth to first with a five-wicket win.
The competition had reached the point where every side was bunched on the same points, so a single result carried outsized weight. Freedom took full advantage, bowling the Unicorns out for 126 and getting there with 11 balls to spare.
Edwards turns the game in one over
San Francisco batted first and never settled. Edwards found the breakthroughs that mattered, and the sixth over of the innings was the passage that decided it. He took three wickets in that spell, leaving the Unicorns reeling at 45 for 4 and unable to rebuild from there. One of them owed plenty to Steven Smith, who threw himself to his right at slip to cling on to a one-handed catch and send back Aaron Hardie.
Matthew Short was the one batter to offer resistance, top-scoring with 39 before the innings folded for 126 in 19.3 overs. Edwards finished with 4 for 13 from 3.3 overs, figures that earned him the player-of-the-match award and did most of the damage on their own.
Smith steadies a shaky chase
A target of 127 looked routine until Freedom stumbled to 19 for 3 and briefly handed the initiative back. Smith and Mark Chapman had other ideas. The pair added the runs that took the sting out of the chase, Smith anchoring one end for a measured 56 off 49 balls with three fours and two sixes, Chapman playing the busier hand for 44 from 33.
Their stand did the bulk of the work, and Freedom crossed the line at 129 for 5 in 18.1 overs. For a side that had been three down for next to nothing, it was a composed way to finish, and it landed at the right time.
Sixth to first in one night
The jump up the standings is the real story here. With the table so tightly packed, the win lifted Washington Freedom to the top and left the Unicorns to regroup after a night when their batting caved under sustained pressure. There is plenty of cricket still to play, but Freedom have handed themselves a lead worth protecting.