Half-centuries from Andre Fletcher (59 off 40 balls) and Matthew Tromp (50 from 32), and a combined bowling effort, helped Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR) beat Washington Freedom by 18 runs in MLC 2026 in Dallas. The win pushed LAKR up to No. 3 on the points table, where all teams placed second to fifth are currently on eight points, but LAKR lead MI New York and fifth-placed Freedom on net run rate.

Freedom opted to bowl, and had a mixed start. While they dismissed Colin Munro and Andre Russell within the first two overs, Fletcher and Tromp counterattacked for LAKR. They smashed 39 runs off the last three overs of the powerplay, with their partnership ticking to 50 after seven overs.

Fletcher was the first to reach his half-century, off 35 balls, before Ben Dwashuis broke the 90-run stand by having Fletcher caught by Steven Smith at long-off. Tromp got to his fifty three balls later, but also fell in the same over when he found Mitchell Owen at deep cover. Regular wickets kept LAKR in check, but Saif Badar (24 off 12 balls) and Jahmar Hamilton (22* from 12) helped LAKR thump 41 runs in the last three overs to propel them to 192.

In reply, Freedom were 41 for 3 in the powerplay, where Sunil Narine bowled a tight spell of 3-0-11-1. While Narine got Owen for 17, Andre Russell struck twice in the sixth over to bag Smith and Rachin Ravindra. Ali Khan also bowled economically for LAKR, who kept Freedom’s chase in check for the first nine overs.

Then, with the required run rate just above 12 runs an over, Andries Gous and Lahiru Milantha decided to fight back. They crashed 49 runs off the next three overs, before Narine returned to concede just three runs and finish his spell with 1 for 14. Ali then dismissed both Gous (37) and Milantha (40) in the 14th over, and while Dwarshuis and Nikhil Chaudhary played cameos, they weren’t enough for Freedom.