Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns play for the last MLC final spot
With the Los Angeles Knight Riders already in the final, the San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom meet in the Challenger for the right to face them at the Oakland Coliseum on July 18.
Jul 17, 2026
The Los Angeles Knight Riders already have their place in the Major League Cricket final. Who joins them will be decided in the Challenger, where the San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom meet at the Oakland Coliseum with a spot in the July 18 title match on the line.
It is a straight knockout, and it pits the tournament’s most consistent side against its most explosive. The Unicorns topped the table through the group stage but ran into the Knight Riders in the Qualifier and lost by seven runs, with Matthew Short left stranded on 94 not out as the chase fell agonisingly short. That defeat cost them the direct route to the final and dropped them into this one-game shootout.
Freedom arrive on a historic high
Washington Freedom come in with the kind of momentum that is hard to manufacture. In the Eliminator they pulled off the highest successful run chase in men’s T20 history, with Steve Smith and Andries Gous both scoring hundreds to gun down a target that had looked well out of reach against MI New York. A batting order capable of that on any given night is a dangerous thing to run into in a knockout.
The flip side is that hauling down a total like that takes something out of a side, and the Unicorns will fancy their own top order on a ground where big scores have been the theme of these playoffs. Finn Allen and Lhuan-dré Pretorius have given San Francisco fast starts all season, and if they get away, Washington’s bowlers will have questions of their own to answer.
A maiden final in wait
Whoever survives runs into a Knight Riders side chasing a first MLC title. Andre Russell and Rovman Powell give them hitters who can turn a game in an over, and Sunil Narine’s spin has the knack of breaking a chase before it starts, as the Unicorns found in the Qualifier when he took out both openers inside three balls. Powell’s 15-ball fifty settled that game. Getting through the Challenger, for the Unicorns or the Freedom, is only half the job.
The Challenger and the final both sit at the Oakland Coliseum, with the title match on July 18. For an Indian audience the pull is familiar. The Knight Riders share the ownership and colours of the Kolkata franchise, and MLC keeps drawing players and eyeballs from the subcontinent as the league grows.