Los Angeles Knight Riders climbed to second spot on the MLC 2026 points table after Jason Holder and Andre Russell combined to script a thrilling 11-run win over San Francisco Unicorns.

Defending 184, LAKR reduced Unicorns to 42 for 4 inside five overs through Holder and Russell before Hassan Khan (45), Matthew Short (43) and Hammad Azam’s 19-ball 40 revived the chase. When Hammad hit Holder for back-to-back fours at the start of the 19th over, Unicorns needed 18 off 10 balls with two wickets in hand.

Holder, though, removed Hammad off the last ball of the over, and Russell claimed the final wicket to bowl Unicorns out with five balls remaining. Holder finished with 4 for 40 to earn the Player-of-the-Match award, while Russell took 3 for 42 after contributing a cameo with the bat.

Earlier, Colin Munro‘s 52 and Matthew Tromp‘s 49 had laid the foundation for LAKR, with Russell providing the late impetus in a 40 off just 18 balls. They looked set for a total in excess of 200 before Haris Rauf (3 for 25) and Xavier Bartlett (2 for 24) pulled things back by triggering a late collapse that saw LAKR lose five wickets for 52 runs.

Unicorns threatened to pull off the chase after recovering from their early collapse, but LAKR held their nerve at the death to register a second successive win and move into second place.

Unicorns, LAKR and MI New York are on 10 points each after nine matches, with Unicorns on top thanks to their net run rate.