The real mayhem, though, came in the middle overs. The seventh over, bowled by Mitchell Owen,  went for just four runs, but Sanjay Krishnamurthi,  Finn’s partner, set the agenda in the next, taking Rachin Ravindra for 24 runs – with four consecutive sixes. Allen then hit Owen for three sixes in the next over, which went for 21, and was followed by 12, 20, 12, 12 and 22 in the next five, as Unicorns got to 194 for 3 after 14. At that stage, with Allen past his century – he got there off 34 balls – even 300 wasn’t out of the question.

Allen didn’t let up, and reached his 150 off just 50 balls on the last ball of the 17th over, but the scoring rate had fallen – only in comparison, of course – a little bit by then, and Allen’s dismissal for 151 off the first ball of the 18th meant Unicorns would need a new star to keep them going.

Hassan Khan was that man. He hit three fours and three sixes in an 18-ball 38 not out, and though not 300, Unicorns’ 269 was still a huge score, studded with records: no one has hit more sixes in a T20 innings than Allen’s 19, no one has scored 150 in a T20 quicker than Allen, no one has scored more runs in an MLC match than Allen, among other records.

Owen and Ravindra were quick off the blocks for Freedom in their chase. In fact, where Unicorns got 67 for 2 in the powerplay, Freedom had 89 for 1. The wicket of Ravindra, though, appeared to hurt the momentum, since he was going faster than Owen at that stage.

The flourish at the start had come from Owen, who was on 36 from 13 by the end of the third over. But Ravindra then got going, hitting Xavier Bartlett for four sixes off the first four balls in a 25-run over. But he was dismissed by Liam Plunkett in the sixth, and Owen went in the seventh, and then it was steadily downhill for Freedom.

Edwards, the No. 3, and Ben Sears, the No. 10, were the only others to get into double figures as Freedom hurtled towards the inevitable, folding for 146 in 13.1 overs. Haris Rauf and Hassan picked up three wickets each for Unicorns, while Carmi le Roux got two.

Unicorns next play on Saturday afternoon local time, against Los Angeles Knight Riders, while Freedom are in action later the same day, against Seattle Orcas.

Brief scores:
San Francisco Unicorns 269 for 5 in 20 overs (Tim Seifert 18, Finn Allen 151, Sanjay Krishnamurthy 36, Hassan Khan 38*;  Saurabh Netravalkar 1-57, Jack Edwards 2-39, Mitchell Owen 1-33, Ian Holland 1-30) beat  Washington Freedom 146 in 13.1 overs (Rachin Ravindra 42, Mitchell Owen 39, Jack Edwards 21, Ben Sears 15*; Haris Rauf 3-30, Liam Plunkett 1-09, Hassan Khan  3-38, Carmi Le Roux 2-35, ) by 123 runs

[Cricinfo]

Pat Cummins stole the early headlines when he became the first visiting captain to take a five for at Lord’s and then went on to pluck his 300th Tet wicket. Then it was over to Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen, who had Australia 44 for 3 before Lungi Ngidi, back in the Test side after ten months and coming off a poor first innings, redeemed himself with three wickets in a nine-over spell that broke Australia open.

Where things stand at the end of the day is that South Africa will already have to pull off the fourth-highest sucessfyl chase at Lord’s, and do it against Australia’s unrelenting attack. That means it’s probably still advantage Australia after a breathless seven-and-half-hours in a final that has hit fast-forward.

South Africa resumed the day on 43 for 4, 169 runs behind Australia’s 212, and on a go-slow. Temba Bavuma had laboured his way to 3 off 37 overnight as South Africa’s innings ground yo a halt. but he showed more initiative on the second morning. He struck two glorious lofted drives in Mitchell Starc’s second over of the day and looked to be finding his touch. Bavuma was on 17 before he was given out lbw off a Josh Hazlewood delivery that nipped in and struck his back pad, and he reluctantly reviewed. To everyone’s disbelief including Bavuma’s, Snicko showed an inside-edge. Bavuma went on to drive Hazlewood and Starc over the covers and pull Cummins into the stands for six in what looked like an increasingly authoritative stay at the crease.