Dasun Shanaka has dragged Seattle Orcas to the top of the Major League Cricket table after a rescue act that turned a collapsing innings into a 20-run win over Los Angeles Knight Riders in Oakland.
The official MLC listing recorded Seattle at 154/7 before LAKR closed on 134/8. Shanaka’s unbeaten 58 from 23 balls was the innings that changed the match, arriving after the Orcas had slipped into trouble and needed late-order force rather than decoration.
Stoinis gives Orcas a table-setting edge
Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis then shut the chase down with 3-28, removing Jason Holder and Matthew Tromp in the final over after LAKR had failed to turn a 42-run opening stand into control. Cricbuzz’s scorecard listed Colin Munro’s 33 from 36 as the highest Knight Riders score, a telling marker of how quickly the chase lost pace.
For Seattle, the win does more than repair the immediate damage from their previous defeat. It gives Stoinis’ side a standings lead before the tournament shifts into its next phase, while LAKR head towards their home leg with back-to-back chase failures. On a slow Oakland surface, Shanaka’s acceleration was the clear separation point.
It also adds another franchise-cricket thread to ReadCricket’s wider coverage, following Nepal’s confirmed Top End T20 Series return and the growing competition for visibility in the global T20 calendar.
