Matthew Short‘s scintillating and unbeaten 121 off 56 balls wasn’t enough for San Francisco Unicorns as they fell just short in the last over of a run-fest and Washington Freedom made their third straight final in MLC. Freedom saw an all-round batting performance that saw them amass 238 for 6 in the second eliminator and their seven-run win set up a title clash with Los Angeles Knight Riders in Oakland on Saturday.

Unicorns came very close to chasing down the massive target as they needed 22 from the last over, which Short began with a six and a four against Mitchell Owen. But with 12 to get from four, Owen fought back with a couple of yorkers and conceded only four runs off his last four balls to seal the game.

In a knockout game of small margins where 469 runs were scored in 40 overs, it was an evening to forget for the bowlers in Oakland. Put in to bat, Freedom began their innings with an 83-run opening partnership between Owen (42 off 19) and Steven Smith (43 off 20) in the powerplay. But with both falling in the space of six balls, Andries Gous took charge by smashing 73 off 40 balls to lift them to a strong total. Gous hit eight fours and three sixes, and enjoyed brisk half-century stands with Rachin Ravindra and Nikhil Chaudhary, while Glenn Maxwell fell for 13 off 10 in between.

In response, Short walked in at No. 3 for Unicorns to single-handedly keep them in contention. He struck 11 fours and eight sixes, but kept losing wickets around him. With five overs to go and 79 runs still needed, Short and No. 8 Xavier Bartlett gave Freedom a scare by taking 17, 14 and 19 runs over the next three overs that brought it down to 29 to get from 12, but Saurabh Netravalkar conceded just seven runs in the 19th over to stall Unicorns’ momentum.

Short gave the last over the start his team needed but Owen’s reply meant Unicorns couldn’t make their second final.