Maxwell, Netravalkar, and Edwards shine as Washington Freedom beat Seattle Orcas
Defending champions Washington Freedom delivered a dominant performance to defeat the Seattle Orcas by eight wickets in the ongoing Cognizant Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 season at Broward County Stadium in Florida on Friday.
After opting to field first, the Freedom bowlers put on a sensational display to bundle out the Orcas for 82 in 17.4 overs.
Captain Glenn Maxwell, Saurabh Netravalkar, and Jack Edwards were the chief destroyers, each claiming three wickets.
Later, Mukhtar Ahmed’s unbeaten 21-ball 36 and Rachin Ravindra’s 32 off 23 balls helped us chase down the target in just 9.2 overs.
With 14 points from nine games, we moved to second place in the MLC 2025 standings after the commanding victory.
Earlier, star left-arm pacer Netravalkar struck with the very first ball, dismissing opening batter Shayan Jahangir courtesy of a brilliant catch by Glenn Phillips.
Maxwell soon joined the party, trapping Aaron Jones in front of the stumps in the second over.
Netravalkar then picked up his second wicket, removing opposition captain Sikandar Raza.
In the fourth over, Maxwell added another to his tally by dismissing the Orcas opener Steven Taylor, thanks to a sensational catch by Rachin Ravindra.
Skipper Maxwell continued his outstanding spell by getting the better of Kyle Mayers to reduce the Orcas to 19/5 in the sixth over.
Heinrich Klaasen and Shimron Hetmyer showed some resistance, adding 22 runs for the sixth wicket.
However, the Freedom bowlers continued to chip away with crucial breakthroughs, as Jack Edwards dismissed Hetmyer in the ninth over.
Edwards then removed Harmeet Singh, leaving the Orcas reeling at 55/7 in the 11th over.
Our bowlers maintained the pressure, with Ravindra cleaning up Gerald Coetzee and Netravalkar dismissing Jasdeep Singh to complete his three-wicket haul.
Edwards wrapped up the innings by removing Klaasen, bowling the Orcas out for 82.
In response, Ravindra gave us a strong start by hitting Coetzee for two boundaries in the opening over.
In the following over, Mitchell Owen continued his fine form, hammering Harmeet Singh for his first four.
Ravindra then struck another boundary off Raza and followed it up with a six before Owen was dismissed in the third over.
Batting at No. 3, Mukhtar Ahmed wasted no time, smashing Coetzee for a six and later hitting Harmeet for a four to take us past fifty in the sixth over.
Mukhtar and Ravindra kept the momentum going, with Mukhtar hammering Coetzee for two fours and a six to collect 16 runs in the eighth over.
Despite losing Ravindra for 32, Mukhtar and wicketkeeper-batter Andries Gous stitched together an unbeaten 15-run stand to guide us to an eight-wicket victory.
For his match-defining spell of 4-0-12-3, captain Maxwell was named the Player of the Match.
“Our ability to adapt to different conditions and the variety we have in our bowling, and also the batting, have been the standout points. It was great for different guys to step up with the ball tonight,” Maxwell said at the post-match presentation.
After this thumping win, we’ll aim to seal a top-two finish when we take on MI New York in our final league game in Florida on Sunday.
Washington Freedom vs Seattle Orcas, MLC 2025, brief scores: SOR 82/10 in 17.4 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 48, Sikandar Raza 8; Glenn Maxwell 3/12) lost to WF 86/2 in 9.2 overs (Mukhtar Ahmed 36 not out, Rachin Ravindra 32; Jasdeep Singh 1/11) by 8 wickets.
