Holder’s four-for and Munro’s fifty send the Knight Riders past the Unicorns
Los Angeles Knight Riders defended 184 to beat San Francisco Unicorns by 11 runs in Dallas, a result that tightens the Major League Cricket 2026 playoff race with the league stage running out.
Jul 11, 2026
The Los Angeles Knight Riders have dragged themselves back into the Major League Cricket 2026 playoff conversation. At Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, they piled up 184 for 7 and then squeezed the San Francisco Unicorns out for 173, holding on for an 11-run win that reshuffles the table with the league stage almost done.
Jason Holder led it from the front with the ball. The Knight Riders captain returned 4 for 40, the standout bowling effort of the night, and was named player of the match. It was the kind of controlling spell a Los Angeles side that started the tournament in fits and starts had been crying out for.
Munro and Tromp build the platform
The total was built on a busy top order. Colin Munro anchored with 52 off 43 balls and Matthew Tromp raced to 49 off 28, the pair keeping the scoreboard ticking before Andre Russell arrived to do what Russell does. His 40 off 18 balls, full of the clean hitting that still separates him from most in this format, dragged Los Angeles up to 184 for 7.
San Francisco’s bowlers were not without their moments. Haris Rauf was the pick with 3 for 25, his pace keeping the total in check, and Xavier Bartlett took 2 for 24. But 184 always looked a shade beyond comfortable for the chasing side, and so it proved.
The Unicorns fall just short
San Francisco’s reply had shape to it. Hassan Khan top-scored with 45, Matthew Short struck 43 at the top and Hammad Azam added 40, and for long stretches the chase felt alive. What the Unicorns lacked was a finisher to match Holder. Wickets at the wrong moments kept nudging the required rate up, and once Russell (3 for 42) and Holder started striking, the equation slipped away. San Francisco were bowled out for 173 in 19.1 overs, 11 runs short.
A playoff race decided by margins
The result matters as much for the standings as for either side’s confidence. The win lifts the Knight Riders level with San Francisco on points, both now packed alongside MI New York with little more than net run rate separating them. With only a handful of league fixtures left, every result and every over is feeding into who claims the playoff berths. For a Los Angeles team that has spent much of the season on the fringes, an 11-run win over one of the tournament’s form outfits could not have been better timed.