Owen, Gous blitz lifts Washington Freedom to fourth straight win

Blazing half-centuries from Mitch Owen and Andries Gous powered Washington Freedom to their fourth successive win in MLC 2025, as they overhauled Texas Super Kings' 220/6 with two balls to spare, climbing to second on the points table.

Owen and Rachin Ravindra got the chase off to a flying start, hitting five boundaries in the first eight deliveries. Though Ravindra fell during the powerplay, Owen made the Super Kings pay after being dropped on 20 in the third over.

Despite the brisk start, Freedom were well behind the required rate by the end of the eighth over, managing only 72 runs. But another reprieve for Owen-dropped again on 42 in the ninth over, followed by a no-ball-allowed the Australian opener to break free. He made the most of it, smashing Marcus Stoinis for consecutive sixes.

The real momentum shift came in the 12th over when Noor Ahmad was taken apart for 22 runs, followed by Gous hammering 24 off Donovan Ferreira in the next. A tight over from Stoinis and Owen's dismissal for 89 briefly brought TSK back into the game. But Gous and Glenn Maxwell landed some lusty blows at the death to reduce the equation to five runs off the final over. Stoinis' mix of yorkers and full tosses made it tricky at first, but Glenn Phillips eventually sealed the deal with a boundary through backward point on the fourth delivery. Gous remained unbeaten on 80-his highest MLC score.

Earlier in the day, Faf du Plessis' 31-ball 69 had powered TSK to a formidable total after being put in to bat. It was his second successive fifty-plus score in a losing cause. Du Plessis and Smit Patel gave the Super Kings a flying start, putting on 55 inside five overs.

TSK got useful contributions throughout, but a slowdown in the middle overs-particularly against Maxwell-proved costly. The Freedom skipper conceded just 35 runs and picked up two wickets. Owen struck three times before starring with the bat. Calvin Savage and Shubham Ranjane added a quickfire 36 off 14 balls at the end to lift TSK to 220.

Brief scores: Texas Super Kings 220/6 in 20 overs (Faf du Plessis 69, Marcus Stoinis 32; Mitch Owen 3-33, Glenn Maxwell 2-35) lost to Washington Freedom 223/3 in 19.4 overs (Mitch Owen 89, Andries Gous 80*; Adam Milne 3-42) by 7 wickets.