Seattle Orcas v San Francisco Unicorns MLC Tips: Klaasen has to fire for Orcas

• Orcas 2.486/4 for first shock of the league

• Dallas pitch still good for batters

• Seattle suffering from bizarre batting struggles

• Coetzee and Plunkett in

• Time for Klaasen to deliver

• Read the story of England's stunning 17/118.00 first Test win here

Seattle Orcas v San Francisco Unicorns 
Thursday 26 June, 01:00
TV: Live on Willow

Seattle Orcas v San Francisco Unicorns MLC team news

Orcas are ready to go home by the looks of things. They suffered the ignominy of defeat by LAKR last time out having thrown away a winning position. They just haven't got going and have found runscoring hard when others have smashed it to all parts.

Keeping Heinrich Klaasen waiting at No 5 makes no sense at all. Having to watch Aaron Jones and Kyle Mayers struggle to get it off the square must be driving him mad. At least Cameron Gannon has returned to the XI to assist the bowling group while Gerald Coetzee was a surprise addition last time. Might be a good idea, though, for him to actually bowl his full quota.

Possible Orcas XI:  Warner, Jahangir, Jones, Mayers, Klaasen, Hetmyer, Raza, Coetzee, Harmeet, Jasdeep, Gannon

San Francisco have won all five matches. It would take a spectacular loss of form from here for them not to at least make the final. They have based their title charge on batting power and have been prepared to make tough decisions on selection.

Corey Anderson, the skip, has been replaced by Matt Short who has been superb. When Finn Allen was unavailable for the last game (presumably through injury), Tim Seifert came back into the opening slot. Romario Shepherd has replaced Cooper Connolly and Liam Plunkett has come in for Juanoy Drysdale.

Possible San Francisco XI: Short, Seifert, Fraser-McGurk, Krishnamurthi, Shepherd, Hassan, Gore, Bartlett, Plunkett, Rauf, le Roux

Seattle Orcas v San Francisco Unicorns MLC pitch report

The sixes count collapsed to just 11 in Texas-LAKR on Wednesday. The lines were being busted with regularity at 20s previously. Is it a sign that the surface is slowing? Well, Texas aren't the biggest of hitters and their 196 first up was hardly paltry. And LA's collapse to 144 was hardly surprising. They have been reliably unreliable with the bat.

Unicrons will be expected to thrash the Orcas bowling if they bat first. But Seattle's dreadful batting, a run rate of just 7.2 on roads is pathetic. Sportsbook's overs Unicorns match runs will be interesting and could even be a sell because of their opponents' reliability. Likewise sixes at 21.5 because Orcas just cannot hit. 

Seattle Orcas v San Francisco Unicorns MLC match prediction

It is far from unusual in franchise cricket for a runaway leader to be upset by a bottom-feeder in the ladder season. Whether Orcas at 2.486/4 are big enough remains to be seen. 

One could frame an argument that the brain of David Warner can conjour a shock. Or that Klaasen can produce something special. Or that Sikandar Raza can hold his nerve with the bat the the death as he so often does.

The first thing they may need to get right is the toss. Bat and get a decent total and hope that scoreboard pressure can come to their aid. If Orcas have to bowl first when the pitch is at its best and the boundaries are short, they cokld get demoralised very quickly indeed against a Unicorns front three that are explosive. 

Seattle Orcas v San Francisco Unicorns v MLC player bets

Klaasen surely has to deliver at some point for Seattle, although the top bat at 7/24.50 is hard to justify given we may have to wait for three wickets to fall before seeing him. Overs 22.5 on runs is the play then. Apart from there being no worries about the pitch, he has a strong match-up against these bowlers. In 64 balls he has smashed 109 runs and been out twice. 

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