Washington Freedom's team handshake line quickly turned into a queue to hug Saurabh Netravalkar as the American left-arm legend added to his lore with an over for the ages to help book his team's place in the 2026 MLC Final.  

Photo credit: Peter Della Penna

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
With two balls left in the de facto semifinal for MLC 2026 at Oakland Coliseum, Washington Freedom bowler Mitchell Owen had eight runs to defend to keep the host San Francisco Unicorns from advancing to the tournament final. A swing and a miss by Xavier Bartlett effectively clinched Freedom’s spot in the final before the performative charade of the official final ball was completed by Owen as Bartlett tapped a meaningless single to create the final seven-run winning margin for Freedom. 
 
But while many Freedom players first went to mob Owen in the initial sequence of on-field celebrations, most of them reserved their unbridled victory zeal for Saurabh Netravalkar. Thanks to Netravalkar, Owen had 22 runs to play with in the final over. In truth, the victory was sealed because of the USA left-arm pace bowling cult hero’s penultimate seven-run over that was as silky smooth as a ride in one of the Lexus RX 500h cars he now endorses. 
 
Ever since MLC opening night 2025, when Unicorns opener Finn Allen scored 151 off 51 balls to etch his name and image into Oakland Coliseum folklore - no really, there’s now a picture of him hanging above the Lot F entrance on the “Welcome to Oakland” landscape banner alongside John Madden, Rickey Henderson, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Jerry Garcia and Bad Bunny every time you walk through the gates – the cricket iteration of the Coliseum has been a bowler’s graveyard. One only needed to rewind 24 hours to see the highest combined total in MLC history as Nicholas Pooran’s 31-ball century was made to look puny just hours later by triple-figure scores made by the Freedom pair of Steve Smith and Andries Gous in a record-setting chase by scoring 270 off just 18.4 overs. 
 
So when Freedom managed to score a ho-hum 238 on Thursday evening and both captains said at the toss that they’d have chosen to chase with batting conditions appearing to be far easier under the lights at Oakland Coliseum, the consensus from fans in the stands as well as those in the media box was that Unicorns would chase it comfortably. 
 
But on a night when the scoring rate was effectively 12 per over, Netravalkar wound up being the only Freedom bowler who conceded his runs at a single digit economy rate: 8.75. Gous may have walked away with the Match MVP award for the third time in a row, thanks to top-scoring for Freedom with a first-innings 73 off 40 balls. Yet, the body language and eagerness from the Freedom players to hug Netravalkar after the final ball, including from wicketkeeper Gous himself to his battery and USA squad mate, essentially conveyed what Kevin Durant once declared into a mic while paying tribute to his “Ma”, Wanda, when accepting the 2014 NBA MVP award: Saurabh, “You the real MVP!”
 
Netravalkar’s two overs in the Powerplay resulted in just 14 runs, including the wicket of the aforementioned Allen in the fifth over for just 14. But his good work was quickly undone by Owen, who bowled a horror sixth over in which he was whacked by Matthew Short for three consecutive sixes but appeared to escape with three dots in the rest of the over… until the no ball alert was raised on the would-be final ball, resulting in a free hit for a fourth six off another no ball in what turned into a 28-run frame. 
 
So Owen was already in the doghouse by the final over, one in which he *only* gave up 14 runs to end the match to end with figures of 1 for 57. Instead, the hero of the bowling unit was Netravalkar whose spell of 1 for 35 was capped off with a masterful six balls in the 19^th. 
 
The true beauty in that six-ball sequence was its efficient simplicity, a hallmark of the process-driven nature of Netravalkar, who as most of the cricket world is well-aware doubles as a senior-level techie in Silicon Valley at Oracle. Up to that point in the chase, Unicorns captain Matthew Short was a rampaging rhino at the crease on 103 off 48 balls – and eventually ended the night with a single-season MLC record of 513 runs in 12 innings – while Bartlett’s microwave bat at the other end had quickly heated up to fire three sixes off his first nine balls on the way to 25. 
 
But anyone who watched the scenario unfold should not be fooled into thinking that the thoughts going through Netravalkar’s head in the moment before he started bowling the 19^th were anything akin to the casino table scene meme from “The Hangover” where Zach Galifianakis’ character is processing mathematical calculations at warp speed to count cards and win big at blackjack. Instead, Netravalkar had a basic plan for how to produce a live-action tall poppy syndrome reenactment against the two Aussie overseas batters. 
 
“In the 19^th over, I narrowed down what balls I bowl well, which is usually a yorker either on the heels or the wide yorker, and I bowl a slow and wide ball which works for me, these three balls,” Netravalkar said at the post-match press conference. “In the previous over, I did bowl the slow and wide and I got hit for two boundaries. I thought it’s still small dimensions so here and there you can still go for four. So the best ball to bowl was a yorker. I know if I miss, they hit. If I hit, they can’t score a six. That was the simple thing to do. I think 80% of the time I executed. A few were low full tosses, but still they are not very easy to get elevation and on the ground the outfield is not that quick so that was the best chance. 
 
“I just tried to maximize the probability for success. I executed three or four good yorkers out of the six and I’m glad that could happen.” After having donned his Superman cape on the field, Netravalkar seemingly had quickly changed back into his Clark Kent persona before entering the press conference room and delivering such aw shucks modesty in his answer. He may claim he only bowled “three or four good yorkers” out of six, but the ball-by-ball ledger says otherwise. Five singles and a two to fine leg that was slapped back inside the rope was all that Short and Bartlett could muster. As Freedom captain and multiple-World Cup winner Smith said during the post-match presentation on the host broadcaster, “That second to last over is as good an over at the death that I’ve ever seen in T20 cricket.” 
 
While the Freedom players couldn’t hide their gratitude toward Netravalkar, whether by Smith’s word on the microphone to TV viewers or by active deed during the team handshake line, the 34-year-old bowler said he struggled to hold in his own emotions in response to the visible outpouring from his teammates. The first ones to get to him for a combination of high fives and handshakes were USA teammates Gous and Ian Holland, followed by New Zealand star Rachin Ravindra. Then Smith arrived with an unmistakable finger-wag full of pride that elicited a fist pump in response from Netravalkar. But most notable was the quasi bear hug and vigorous hair ruffling that came from Glenn Maxwell, after which Netravalkar could no longer maintain a modest smile and finally broke out a Colgate-worthy grin from ear to ear before Owen subsequently showered more love on him. 
 
“I think I almost had tears in my eyes because I could see how pumped up everybody was,” Netravalkar said. “If I look around me, the quality of players here – we have Steven Smith is one of the best batters of all-time, I think [the best] of our generation; if you see Glenn Maxwell and if these guys are validating your performances, that really makes me feel nice and grateful that I’m on the right track, I’m working hard and you feel like your efforts are being crowned. So I’m really grateful.”
 
On the morning of June 6, 2024, few people outside of the American cricket ecosystem, barring his old teammates in Mumbai and his Oracle co-workers, would have been able to pick Saurabh Netravalkar out of a police lineup. Now, he’s a household name, at least in the global cricket ecosystem, because that heroic Super Over in the T20 World Cup win over Pakistan was not some flash in the pan, lightning in a bottle moment. Instead, Netravalkar has consistently shown over a lengthy body of work that he is ready to handle the end-of-match pressure-filled moments with the very best in the sport. 
 
The hometown Unicorns might have been knocked out of the playoffs on Thursday, but there’s still an adopted hometown hero in Netravalkar who will be taking the field at Oakland Coliseum on Saturday for the MLC 2026 Final that local fans will be hard-pressed to root against, even if he had a big (left) hand in ending the Unicorns’ 2026 campaign. The Freedom already have one MLC title under their belts. They now have a chance to make it two and equal the mark held by MI New York. Given the fact that the championship showdown with Los Angeles Knight Riders is set for a 4:30 pm local time start, that’s just enough time for the Freedom and Netravalkar to possibly ride off into the 8:29 pm Oakland summer sunset – no doubt in a shiny Lexus RX 500h – with a second MLC winner’s medal around his neck.