Akeal Hosein completed a hat-trick in the last over of an MLC 2026 game, but Nikhil Chaudhary trumped his effort with a last-ball six to win the match.
Chaudhary starred for the Washington Freedom against Texas Super Kings as he smashed a six off the last ball to take his team home at the 2026 the Major League Cricket (MLC). It ruined the exceptional last over Akeal Hosein had bowled until then.
Nikhil Chaudhary’s last-ball six trumps Akeal Hosein’s last-over hat-trick
Coming on to defend only six in the last over, Hosein started brilliantly. He began with a dot, followed by three wickets in three balls, taking Marco Jansen, Amila Aponso and Asif Mehmood as his victims. It could have been four in four, but Lockie Ferguson survived a close call – and, more importantly, ran a leg-bye.
Chaudhary, left stranded until that point in the final over, now needed five to win the game. TSK were the favourites at this point, but Chaudhary had other ideas. He shuffled across to heave the ball over deep mid-wicket for a stunning six, drawing huge celebrations from his teammates in the dugout.
“I just had a belief in myself; even if I had one ball, I could clear the boundary with that ball and win the game from there. There was no celebration, it was just instinct after the last-ball six. There's so many moments in this game where we get that day to leave and then I actually got it, and hopefully it just came out, and it was good,” Chaudhary said after the match.
Earlier, Chaudhary had picked up 2-29 runs in his four overs. He dismissed Saiteja Mukkamalla and Rilee Rossouw in consecutive overs during his spell that helped Washington restrict the opposition to 185 runs in their 20 overs.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
