San Francisco Unicorns 153 for 3 (Pretorius 69*, Short 31) beat Texas Super Kings 152 for 9 (Rossouw 36, Viljoen 33*, Siddle 3-36, Short 2-25) by seven wickets

R Ashwin endured a quiet but victorious MLC debut as San Francisco Unicorns (SFU) picked up their first win of the season, a seven-wicket stroll against Texas Super Kings (TSK). Having restricted TSK to 152 for 9 courtesy a splendid new-ball effort led by Ghulam Mudassar and Peter Siddle, SFU reached their target with 13 balls to spare, with Lhuan-dre Pretorius steering them home with an unbeaten 69 off 55 balls.

Sent in, TSK lost three wickets in the powerplay, with Mudassar, Siddle and Brody Crouch striking once each and giving little away. That TSK got to 43 for 3 at the six-over mark was down largely to Ashwin's first over in competitive cricket since July 2025. He came on for the fourth over, and Milind Kumar promptly hit his first and fifth balls for six. Ashwin bowled one more over and finished with figures of 0 for 24. Fellow offspinner Matthew Short, the SFU captain, enjoyed a more successful day out, picking up 2 for 25 in four overs.

Just when Rilee Rossouw was threatening to lead a TSK recovery, he was run out for 36 off 29, and when Siddle dismissed Wiaan Mulder two balls later, TSK were 82 for 6 in the 12th over. That they got past 150 was down largely to Hardus Viljoen, who scored an unbeaten 24-ball 33 from No. 9.

A target of 153 was still too modest to test SFU, however, with Pretorius and Short laying the platform with an 82-run partnership for the second wicket off just 47 balls. SFU's progress to victory following Short's dismissal was laborious - they took 55 balls to scored their last 64 runs - but they got there without much alarm.