Forgotten India batter and former U19 World Cup winning captain Unmukt Chand's unbeaten 86 helped Los Angeles Knight Riders beat Seattle Orcas in an MLC 2025 match on Sunday (June 22).
LAKR were in trouble early on while chasing Orcas’ 177-6, having slipped to 7-2. Opener Alex Hales and No.3 Nitish Kumar both went for a run each. The chase was revived by a 79-ball 139-run stand between Chand and Saif Badar. While the latter departed for a 32-ball 54, Chand kept marching on. Rovman Powell (1) also fell cheaply, but Chand, along with Sherfane Rutherford, took LAKR home with 10 balls and six wickets remaining.
Chand finished unbeaten on a 58-ball 86, hitting 10 fours and four sixes. He was 42 off 36 at one stage, but changed gears by smashing Gerald Coetzee for two sixes and two fours in a 20-run over. That was also his second MLC fifty this year, with the first one being a 32-ball 53 in a losing cause against San Francisco Unicorns.
The victory snapped LAKR’s three-match winless streak this season, marking their first victory of the campaign. The result lifted them to fifth place in the standings, just above the last-placed Orcas, who remain winless after losing all their four matches.
An innings that just had us looking in awe 😍
— Los Angeles Knight Riders (@LA_KnightRiders) June 23, 2025
Unmukt Chand | #WeAreLAKR | #CognizantMLC2025 | #MajorLeagueCricket pic.twitter.com/xjt1BgHFEK
Where has Unmukt Chand been since the 2012 U19 World Cup?
Chand, hailing from Delhi, captained India to U19 World Cup glory in 2012, but his career failed to take off as anticipated. In a bid to revive his fortunes, he relocated to the United States in 2021, retiring from Indian cricket to pursue opportunities in leagues like the BBL, BPL, and MLC.
Also read: Explained: How a recent Indian domestic cricketer is playing in Major League Cricket
Now eligible to represent the USA internationally, Chand was omitted from their squad for their maiden T20 World Cup appearance in 2024. He is yet to make his debut for his adopted nation in any format.
"That wasn't an ideal situation to be in. Because, personally for me, this was what I had dreamed for the last three years. Obviously, it was a big shock. And it took me time to sort of come to terms with it. It's never easy as a player, having lost all those things back home in India, to have this one goal, which had kept me going for the last three years, not happening," Chand said in an interview with Cricbuzz in 2024.
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