Netravalkar to Warner, no run, short of length delivery, Warner pushes to cover

Netravalkar to Warner, FOUR, belted down the ground! Overpitched and Warner goes straight back over the bowler's head. Slot ball, got under it and hit it to the safest place on the cricket field

Netravalkar to Warner, no run, oh a poke away from the body! Oohs and aahs from the Freedom. Short of a length delivery moving away, Warner feels for the ball and misses

Netravalkar to Mayers, leg byes, 1 run, appeal for LBW straightaway but missing leg. Mayers couldn't account for the angle into him and some seam movement back in as well.

Mayers and Warner are at the crease. Mayers is on strike. Netravalkar will open the attack

Out come the players

We have locked our Fantasy Handbook teams.

Pitch report: This is a hard surface. Almost like Australian conditions in terms of pace and bounce and that tells you that it will be good for batting as well.

Teams:

Seattle Orcas (Playing XI): David Warner, Kyle Mayers, Steven Taylor, Aaron Jones, Heinrich Klaasen(w/c), Sikandar Raza, Harmeet Singh, Cameron Gannon, Jasdeep Singh, Waqar Salamkheil, Obed McCoy

Washington Freedom (Playing XI): Mitchell Owen, Rachin Ravindra, Jack Edwards, Glenn Phillips, Glenn Maxwell(c), Andries Gous(w), Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Ian Holland, Ben Sears, Saurabh Netravalkar

Maxwell: I was looking forward to losing the toss because I wasn't sure. We have to execute our plans. Same team.

Seattle Orcas have won the toss and have opted to bat

Klaasen: We are going to bat first. Wicket seems a bit two-paced

Seattle Orcas have won the toss and have opted to bat

Toss will be slightly delayed as the first game is extending

The Freedom can be mighty heavy with the bat if their middle-order clicks. They lost 8 wickets for just 28 runs at one point in the last game. The bowlers as well need to correct their mistakes of bowling too full. This is going to be an exciting contest

17:00 Local Time, 00:00 GMT, 05:30 IST: Welcome to the second game of the double-header. Defending champs Freedom were humbled by the Unicorns in the first game and they will be keen to get their first points of the season. But they are up against a formidable Seattle Orcas. The Orcas have batting power, depth and bowling variety. Klassen didn't have a great season last time and he will be itching to correct that. He is coming into this season with runs under his belt.

Preview

There's getting your boat rocked sideways, and then there's that season opener for Washington Freedom. The defending champions started out by taking a big hit on their title-winning aura in the first match of the new season. In their defence, the conditions were new (to both sides) in the maiden MLC game at the Oakland Coliseum in California, and for the first six overs of the chase, they were right in it.

It then unravelled, rather dramatically. The Glenn Maxwell-led side, however, can take solace from the fact that this was merely the first game of the season and that they have enough room to shrug off this false start and get a quick move on.

Standing in their way of such an endeavour is a revamped Seattle Orcas unit. The Orcas finished bottom of the table in 2024 and came down heavily on the reset button. Even their captain from the 2023 season - Wayne Parnell - was deemed dispensable. Heinrich Klaasen, the skipper since last year, will have global stars like David Warner and Sikandar Raza to rely on this season, with the Zimbabwean set for his first T20 league sojourn in the US.

When: Washington Freedom vs Seattle Orcas, Saturday, June 14, 6:00 PM Local Time

Where: Oakland Coliseum, California

What to expect: Big scores. The season got a flying start there with San Francisco Unicorns smashing records on their way to 269/5. Much of the same is anticipated going forward at this new venue.

Team News:

Washington Freedom: The bowlers had a nightmarish start to the season but it is unlikely that the team will be reactionary with their selections this early in the season.

Probable XI: Mitchell Owen, Rachin Ravindra, Jack Edwards, Glenn Maxwell (c), Glenn Phillips, Andries Gous (wk), Obus Pienaar, Mukhtar Ahmed, Ian Holland, Ben Sears, Saurabh Netravalkar

Seattle Orcas: The 2023 finalists will hope to hit those highs again, pinning a lot of hopes on new recruits like Warner and Raza, while Shimron Hetmyer is also part of the squad, although he's yet to join the team as he's in Ireland on national duties.

Probable XI: David Warner, Kyle Mayers, Shayan Jahangir, Aaron Jones, Heinrich Klaasen(c & wk), Sikandar Raza, Jasdeep Singh, Obed McCoy, Harmeet Singh, Cameron Gannon, Aryan Desai

Squads: