Despite a committed effort with the bat and ball, the Washington Freedom went down against the Seattle Orcas on Friday, June 19.

We were invited to bat first, and our innings took off with a confident partnership between Mitchell Owen [61 off 25 balls] and our captain Steve Smith. The 82-run stand gave a good indication of our batting strengths at the top, with as many as 13 boundary fours struck during the run.

After Owen’s departure, Mark Chapman stepped up and punched in a gritty knock of 57 runs off 24 deliveries. The New Zealander stitched an important 85-run partnership with Andries Gous [35 in 21 balls] to take us to a competitive score of 216 at the end of 20 overs.

In the second innings, Saurabh Netravalkar made the first breakthrough, dismissing Orcas’ Shayan Jahangir in the fourth over. With an inswinging back-of-a-length delivery, our left-arm pace star tricked him to mistime his shot, and it landed in the safe hands of Glenn Maxwell.

Tim Seifert struck a 33-ball 78 that got our opponents back in the running. But his innings was brought to a halt as Mark Chapman completed a brilliant catch on the boundary line off the bowling of Netravalkar.

After Seifert, Seattle Orcas rode on South African wicket-keeper-batter Matthew Breetzke’s efforts to keep the required rate within seven runs. Ian Holland struck twice in an over to bring us back into the game before Dasun Shanaka, who came in to bat at number six, hit two fours and four sixes in his 12-ball cameo as we succumbed to a five-wicket defeat.

Tomorrow, we take on defending champions MI New York in Dallas, looking to improve and get our first win of the season.

Seattle Orcas vs Washington Freedom, MLC 2026, brief scores: SEO 219/5 in 17.4 overs (Tim Seifert 78, Matthew Breetzke 66; Ian Holland 2/20) beat WF 216/10 in 20 overs (Mitchell Owen 61, Mark Chapman 57; Ottneil Baartman 4/33) by 5 wickets.