Seattle Orcas registered their maiden win in the Major League Cricket 2025 with a historic outing against MI New York on Friday, June 27. Despite nursing an injury, Hetmyer played a masterful knock and slammed a six off the final ball with six needed to take the team home.
Hetmyer’s 40-ball 97 pipped Nicholas Pooran’s 108 as Orcas chased down the highest score in the history of the Major League Cricket. With six runs needed on the final ball with Kieron Pollard bowling, Hetmyer smacked his senior compatriot over fine leg for a six to help his team chase down 237.
This is now the highest score chased in the history of the tournament, going past Washington Freedom’s chase of 221 against Texas Super Kings a few days ago. Washington also hold the third-highest chase, as they hunted 214 down against the Los Angeles Knight Riders on Thursday.
Kyle Mayers had pushed Orcas to a strong start with his 20-ball 37 after they lost Josh Brown early in the second over. Newly-appointed captain Sikandar Raza played a blistering short cameo, scoring 30 from nine balls, laced with six fours and a six, while Heinrich Klaasen also made a 13-ball 26.
While these were vital contributions, the telling knock came from the willow of Hetmyer. He smacked nine sixes and five fours despite battling with an injury issue to keep his team going. With 32 needed off the last two overs, he smacked Ehsan Adil for a 23-run over with three sixes to bring the equation down to nine off six balls.
Pollard chanced his arm for the final over with Jessy Singh facing and did pretty well until the last ball, when Hetmyer slammed a six to take his team home.
Orcas had come into this match on the back of five straight losses that kick-started their tournament and subsequent leadership changes. Raza was appointed captain as Klaasen stepped aside, while the franchise parted ways with head coach Matthew Mott.
Earlier in the match, Nicholas Pooran’s 108 had guided MINY to a pretty strong total of 237. Pooran and Tajinder Dhillon had put up a 158-run stand for the fourth wicket, which is now the highest in the tournament’s history.
