Washington Freedom vs San Francisco Unicorns Preview & Prediction | 2024 Major League Cricket | Final
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With six wins from eight games in the 2024 edition of Major League Cricket including victory in the qualifier, many see this as Washington Freedom’s lose, but anything can happen in a final and San Francisco Unicorns will believe that they if play their best cricket, the trophy will be bound for the Golden State.
DATE & TIME: Sunday 28th July 2024 - USA ET – 8:30pm / USA PT – 5:30pm / West Indies – 7:30pm / Monday 29th July 2024 - UK – 1:30am / South Africa – 2:30am / Pakistan - 5:30am / India – 6:00am / Bangladesh – 6:30am / Australia – 10:30am
VENUE: Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas, Texas, United States
WEATHER: Extremely hot conditions with temperatures at around 30c come the start of play.
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: USA – Willow TV / West Indies – TBA / UK – TNT Sports / South Africa – ESPN / Pakistan – A Sports / India – Sony Sports / Bangladesh – TBA / Australia – TBA
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: USA – Willow TV / West Indies – TBA / UK – discovery+ / South Africa – ESPN+ app / Pakistan – A Sports / India – Sony LIV / Bangladesh – TBA / Australia & New Zealand – Amazon Prime Video
WASHINGTON FREEDOM FORM: UNICORNS WITH LITTLE TIME TO RECOVER FROM DEFEAT
Washington Freedom gained their revenge on the Unicorns for ruining their unbeaten league stage campaign by beating them in the all-important qualifier to book their place in Sunday’s night’s final in Dallas. The win came by seven wickets, the Freedom bowling out San Francisco for 145, before chasing that target down in just 15.3 overs.
LAST THREE: WLW
SAN FRANCISCO UNICORNS FORM: CAN SUPER KINGS SECURE A MUCH-CRAVED HOME FINAL
San Francisco Unicorns may have been put in their place by Washington in a qualifier, but showed huge guts and class to bounce back in the challenger, breaking the hearts of home team Texas Super Kings. The Unicorns made 200/6 in a high-scoring thriller, which they ultimately won by 10 runs, restricting Texas to 190/4.
LAST THREE: WLW
WASHINGTON FREEDOM BETTING ANALYSIS
The two Washington Freedom openers being the second and third highest scoring batters in the tournament is testament to the strength of their top order. Travis Head’s 77 not out in the qualifier took his overall tally to 327, whilst opening partner Steve Smith boasts 248 runs of his own. The smart move would be placing a stake on both via the ‘Team - Top Batter’ and also backing the pair to each record over 30+ match runs.
So often a left-arm pacer can prove worth their weight in gold across the T20 format and Marco Jansen demonstrated that last time out, taking three wickets against San Francisco. Jansen’s height poses an additional threat in regards to generation extra bounce and making a play for the South African to pick up over 1.5 match wickets looks good value.
SAN FRANCISCO UNICORNS BETTING ANALYSIS
Once again, Finn Allen was the star for San Francisco Uniforms in the challenger having accumulated one of his best individual innings in T20 cricket. It was his 101 off 53 balls which ensured an eventual winning total for the Unicorns vs Texas. He will have a huge role to play in the final and on the back of such a brilliant score, is worth backing to accrue over 24.5 match runs here. His six-hitting abilities could also warrant investment, specifically via the ‘Batter Total Match Sixes’ market.
On the bowling front, Hassan Khan has taken three wickets across the play-offs so far and his left-arm orthodox slow bowling has been tricky to deal with from an opposition point of view. You’d expect Hassan to bowl his four-over allocation in the final and a stake on him to pick up 2+ wickets via the ‘Bowler Milestones’ market is worth serious consideration.
WASHINGTON FREEDOM VS SAN FRANCISCO UNICORNS EXPERTPREDICTION
The last time these two teams met, Washington Freedom demonstrated their class in all departments. Outplaying San Francisco with bat and ball, the Freedom have shown why they’ve set the standard throughout this year’s edition of Major League Cricket. Having a world class top order that combines control with aggression has been key to their success, whilst all avenues are well-covered within the bowling department.
Plenty depends on Finn Allen from a San Francisco point of view, but if he was to fail then you would worry about the Unicorns’ depth, particularly if Washington was to take a cluster of early wickets. With just one defeat across the tournament so far, in a game that had precious little at stake from their point of view, Washington Freedom have been outstanding and the expectation is that they will take that final step and emerge triumphant in the second year of Major League Cricket.
WASHINGTON FREEDOM VS SAN FRANCISCO UNICORNS TOP TIP: WASHINGTON FREEDOM TO WIN
