When the Los Angeles Knight Riders unveiled their uniforms for 2026, I had a good chuckle about it. They claimed the swirling pattern within their standard purple and gold was inspired by the Los Angeles freeway system. While the thought crossed my mind that they designed the uniform and improvised a reason after the fact, I bought that explanation at face value. Of course the Knight Riders, of all teams, would incorporate the one thing that everyone in Los Angeles hates - endless streams of traffic - into their aesthetic and call it their defining feature.

In a way, it was fitting, because it feels like something someone would do if they're not really familiar with the area outside of pictures. What, no Hollywood sign? Were the palm trees on Rodeo or the Beverly Hills Hotel facade too niche? There were so many things the Knight Riders COULD have connected themselves to, like the culture around what people drive ON those freeways, or the region's thriving hip-hop scene, or the iconic film industry that probably kinda knows who Shah Rukh Khan is academically but couldn't pick him out of a lineup, such is the disconnected nature of Indian and American cinema. They even missed out on the chance at a Knight Rider tie-in, something Pommie Mbangwa dinged them on in the first game as he lobbied to get David Hasselhoff out to the cricket. It ended up being just another way Major League Cricket has signaled it's Not From Around Here.

For all their foibles and dysfunction, though, the Knight Riders delivered where Major League Cricket needed them to the most: the turnstiles. While Wednesday night's game was a bit light with capacity capped below what the stands could hold, LAKR's games on Friday and Saturday were much busier and produced good atmosphere. The game on Friday may have been the largest crowd for MLC all season, and it looked good on camera, especially in the second innings when the stands on the east side filled in after the customary. It's a small win in the grand scheme of things, but "it looks good on TV" is a good place to start.

Knight Riders Cricket Ground had to come together fast. It was about 100 days from the first earth moved to the first game, so the infrastructure around it was always going to be temporary. Most seating was portable steel bleachers, with premium areas in big white tents that will be familiar with anyone who has ever been to a municipal Fourth of July barbecue. There were no media facilities at all; the postgame player scrums were held outside, which became an issue on Saturday night when the Independence Day fireworks drowned out Matthew Tromp. Not that it mattered much on balance since he kept getting cut off when he tried to answer questions anyway. Poor guy can't seem to catch a break.

Even the playing surface had to move fast, with 10 days between the outfield sod going in and the first game between Los Angeles and Washington. That showed, too, when Nikhil Chaudhary caught a rut in the turf diving for a catch, and Monank Patel's toe caught a seam trying to prevent a boundary and sent him ass-over-teakettle over the rope with some discomfort in his right knee. He walked it off, though, and other incidents were limited or of negligible impact.

My first thought about the facility back in March, when I saw the pitch square had been laid while the rest was being done, was man, that thing is gonna suck to bat on in July, and I feel like I was only half-right. Getting pitches installed and playable in such a tight timeline is asking a nigh-impossible task of any grounds crew from anywhere in the world, and while it was a true sticky wicket, I think it could have produced some more compelling games in the longer formats. The combination of that surface and the sizable boundaries that caught out more than one batter over the course of the week was not all that great for T20s, though, and it felt like the cricket equivalent of a traffic jam on the I-5. Stop, go, stop, go, lane closure, stop, go, lose your mind.

The highest first innings score was 175, the second-highest was 165, and the third-highest was a paltry 132... and MINY's 132 against Seattle was the only one of those three that held up as a winner. In seven games, three teams were bowled out and three more were down to their final wicket by the end. The bottom fell out on Sunday night when the reigning champs were all out for just 104 against San Francisco after Seattle defended 121 against Texas earlier in the day. Between those two games, 33 wickets fell for just 442 runs - an average of 13.39. The only team that really came away unscathed was Washington, which bowled out Los Angeles and San Francisco for a combined 234 and beat them by six wickets and five wickets, respectively, with a total of 28 deliveries going unused.

Now the scene shifts back to Grand Prairie tonight, and the return to one of the biggest launchpads in the Western Hemisphere will be a whiplash. Hopefully it's not a heatstroke: the game time temperature for tonight's game between New York and San Francisco and tomorrow's game between LA and Washington is likely to be in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. On Friday, New York and Seattle will be playing in the hottest part of the day, and temperatures will definitely be in triple digits. I will be in a bar in Louisville sipping bourbon, thanks.

Oh, Knight Riders. You had me fooled there for a minute.

After winning the first two games in Grand Prairie in convincing fashion, the only team in MLC's short history without a playoff appearance is now on the outside looking in headed into the final week. The Knight Riders christened their home stadium with the shocking decision to bat first on an unknown surface and promptly collapsed for 108 with Rovman Powell stranded at the non-striker's end as much as they possibly could have him there just in case he wanted to win, which, as we learned on Friday, he very clearly does. His 73(27) rescued what looked like another collapse and looked downright gargantuan compared to other scores throughout the week to lift the Knight Riders over Texas. But they topped off their home stand with a shoddy bowling performance against MI New York that included giving up 37 runs to Corey Anderson, who has not scored 37 runs total in his other four innings with bat in hand.

It's hard to fault Powell, or a reinvigorated Sunil Narine, for the state of play in DJ Bravo's camp. The normally reliable Unmukt Chand has been a disaster in the top order; Andre Russell has been a net-negative with the bat and is up-and-down with the ball, and Jason Holder as captain seems to be making virtually every wrong decision a captain can make. Powell looked visibly unhappy during the Washington debacle when Holder kept the strike to just soak up dot balls while he sat at the other end waiting for the captain's wicket to fall. This team still has a very good chance to make the playoffs if it beats Washington on Thursday in spite of all that has gone wrong, but they'll constantly be looking over their shoulders for the freight train that has run them over time and again.

I'll ask again, as I did before the season: if this goes like it looks like it will, are the Knight Riders going to hold anyone accountable?

Speaking of the Freedom, they were the only team that survived Pomona largely intact, and they shaved a full run off their net run rate in the process as they struggle to heal their NRR from being blown out by Seattle in Oakland. They won both games despite Mitchell Owen scoring just seven total runs thanks to an oppressive bowling unit led by a resurgent Netravalkar (4/47), some terrific pace from Ben Dwarshuis (4/39), and the eternally underrated Ian Holland (4/41). Jack Edwards even bagged 4/13 against San Francisco, and Mitchell Owen took 3 wickets for pennies against Los Angeles. Lockie who? Marco where?

Washington has needed some time to figure itself out, but it feels like Ricky Ponting and the Think Tank have gotten closer to a winning formula. That's exactly when the curveball hits, though: the Freedom are adding Rachin Ravindra, who is skipping New Zealand's ODIs in the West Indies to play the back end of the MLC season while losing Mark Chapman to that same ODI series. Chapman was crucial in Pomona, scoring 78 runs off 63 deliveries in two games and playing a major role in getting the bats over the line after the bowlers did the hard work. He became a bulwark against collapses and also played good support to Owen against MI New York, getting the big man the strike when he was on a heater. Ravindra should sort Washington's opening partnership, but now the lineup has to recalibrate behind him - and they have to do it immediately, because the two teams behind them in the standings are their first two opponents in Grand Prairie. We will know by Saturday which of them is making the playoffs.

At the beginning of the year, I thought Seattle was at least one fast bowler short. Baartman would be the go-to and would be good, but Dasun Shanaka was always going to do more with the bat, and Jessy Singh was on a downward spiral that appeared to be hastened along by a nasty shoulder injury.

Oh me of little faith.

Adam Voges has completely transformed Seattle in the way Orcas’ leadership would have hoped for when they hired a coach with his pedigree. The Orcas aren't just of a superior quality from years past - they're of a superior vibe. This team has demonstrably excellent chemistry and clearly enjoys being around each other. One of the best examples, perhaps the best, came on Sunday, when Tim Seifert was adamant that he heard a sound off the bat of Dian Forrester before he caught the ball. He insisted that Stoinis refer it for review, and he was right. When the spike came up on UltraEdge, the entire team mobbed Seifert in celebration, including Stoinis - who got a wicket for his total thanks to Seifert's handiwork.

Given the purgatory so many of these players were in last year - Stoinis going through the motions with Texas, Seifert batting out of position in San Francisco, Jessy bowling just shy of 10s, Jahangir on an island having to deal with opening partners ranging from unpleasant to unsuited - this turnaround feels like something out of a movie. A bunch of players everyone was at best lukewarm about has been given a new lease on their cricket life and turned into a title contender. Even their pivots have landed, with Dasun Shanaka being the consummate role player and even taking the first double hat trick in league history on Sunday. Remember, he was a late add to the squad in place of Jason Behrendorff. It's hard to imagine the Orcas right now without him.

Will they win it? I have no idea. Will they even make the playoffs? I think so, but it’s still uncertain. One way or the other, this team is good, and it's fun, and given their aggressive efforts to become both a local and national rallying point for the sport, the league is better for that.

The Orcas also won big in the boardroom at the end of June, when the King County Council put aside $150,000 toward a briefing by the King County Executive regarding the state of efforts to help the Orcas find a home as well as the state of cricket facilities in Marymoor Park. The county may have to consider those matters separately, but everyone paying attention knows what's in the works there. The executive is expected to brief the Transportation, Economy, and Environment committee of the County Council on or before August 31, meaning the Orcas will have real clarity on the prospects of a future home ground.

Saiteja Mukkamalla finally broke through for his first Major League Cricket half century last week. Amshi de Silva has been an outstanding presence in the bowling attack with a clear and bright future associated with the US national team.

None of it will matter for Faf du Plessis, and depending on the outcome of this week's games, the prevailing winds could spell the end of his captaincy.

The Super Kings have floundered after an auspicious start, dropping both of their games in Pomona including a humiliating 9-run loss to Seattle chasing a target of 122. Akeal Hosein has not seen the field since his hat trick; Keshav Maharaj hasn't played at all, but Wiaan Mulder keeps getting the ball in the power play and keeps getting his ass kicked. Smit Patel has played once, and Joshua Tromp is working on a second consecutive season where his batting prowess goes completely unused. Faf has scored 49 runs in his last four games after a century in the opener, and Rilee Rossouw has cracked 30 just once in the last six contests. Ferreira has been excellent but has not been quite as superhuman as he was in 2025, and that has left Texas short of runs repeatedly.

With so many players going unused or underused, it’s hard to draw any conclusion other than this team is just not all that well-constructed. Players don't come here for a paid vacation, regardless of what the cynics will tell you; people who play for MLC teams want to play, and Texas has set some of them aside like the inexplicable extra parts from an IKEA set. This mismanagement has to have consequences, and those consequences could come down as soon as Monday morning, because this team will very likely miss the playoffs. They might be happy to win another game.

Sanjay Krishnamurthi has to be having a miserable time this season. One of American cricket's brightest prospects at 23 years old and already with iconic moments on his resume, the Unicorns' number four batter has struggled to find runs in the middle in his big domestic showcase. Prior to Sunday, his best score was 19 not-out from 12 balls in a win over Texas on June 20. He had yet to crack 20 runs - or even 15 outside of that one unbeaten score to push San Francisco over the line - and scored just seven runs off 14 deliveries in the intervening four games. He has had abominable luck, as well, getting run out on a spectacular piece of fielding by Amshi de Silva in Oakland in a game that featured a ton of quality work in the field.

The good news is, his luck may be turning. He was able to grind out an unbeaten 48 off 45 to get the job done for San Francisco against MI New York on Sunday - not an award-winning knock by any means, but in a game where the pitch was behaving like a pissed-off bull at a rodeo, being able to hang on that long and get the score that wins the game and puts the Unicorns in a great position to make the playoffs this weekend is an achievement worthy of recognition.

The struggles of domestic bats have been persistent and pervasive throughout the competition the last three weeks, so if Krishnamurthi can rise above the pack, it will be a testament to his class, which, as the cliche goes, is the permanent part.

Faisal Khan Ahmadzai helped Nicholas Pooran out of a jam, I guess, but he used a little too much force.

The 21-year-old who arrived from Afghanistan in 2024 and played for Afghanistan in the U19 World Cup in 2022 came through with an absolute ripper on his first ball in Major League Cricket, getting the in-form Lhuan-dre Pretorius to chop on for a platinum duck. He got a stern talking to from umpire Gregory Brathwaite about his exuberant celebration and send-off of Pretorius; it's hard to fault the young man for his exuberance, but he got carried away, particularly with his vocabulary. Reining it in didn't slow him down, though, and he dislodged Finn Allen in the fourth over. At the other end, 21-year-old South African Tristan Luus brought some hammer blows as well, taking down Matt Short and Aaron Hardie. It wasn't enough to win the game - there was no chance of that with a score of just 104 - but the young guys brought it and brought some energy with them, as well. It's good for the future of the franchise to see young players showing the goods. Kieron Pollard and Trent Boult won't be around forever and might not even be around next year, so knowing what they have and seeing these players get out and bowl will matter for future roster construction.

For now, the Deep Blue Somethings will square up with the Unicorns again tonight, and the winner will be on the brink of a playoff spot as the weekend begins.

This is also the last full week in which only six teams will be playing - Tristan Lavelette reported last week that Major League Cricket is expected to expand to eight teams in 2027. I’ll have more on that later, but this is already approaching 3,000 words and needs to get published, so it’s going to print now. The summer festival of cricket is approaching its peak, and the next few days will be the most attention on domestic cricket for the entire year.

Real ones know it’s not over, though: we’re 29 days from the start of Minor League Cricket, when the domestic game really starts to take flight. Not that I’m counting or anything.