Faf's 112 Powers TSK to Record Chase — Super Kings Beat Seattle Orcas by 6 Wickets

Texas Super Kings (Playing XI): Faf du Plessis (c), Saiteja Mukkamalla (wk), Rilee Rossouw, Donovan Ferreira, Wiaan Mulder, Shubham Ranjane, Amshi de Silva, Milind Kumar, Mohammad Mohsin, Nandre Burger, Adam Milne

🇿🇦 5 South Africans · 🇺🇸 2 Americans · 🇮🇳 2 Indians · 🇱🇰 1 Sri Lankan · 🇳🇿 1 New Zealander

Led by 41-year-old Faf du Plessis, powered by a strong South African core featuring Rossouw, Ferreira, Mulder and Burger.

Head to Head: TSK vs Seattle Orcas

TSK lead 3–2 all-time — but the early history tells a cautionary tale. In 2023, the Orcas were ruthless: they won both meetings and won them easily, by 8 and 9 wickets respectively, chasing down TSK totals of 127 and 126 with barely a bead of sweat. Since then, though, the pendulum has swung hard the other way. TSK have won the last three encounters in a row, including a 93-run demolition in June 2025 — their biggest win over Seattle — where the Orcas collapsed to 60 all out chasing 154. Dominant recent form. But a rivalry that started with Seattle firmly on top.

Home. Dallas. Grand Prairie Stadium under the lights. The Texas Super Kings walked out for their first game of Major League Cricket 2026 with a point to prove — and they chose to prove it the hard way, setting themselves a 221-run chase.

Faf du Plessis won the toss and did what most captains do on a flat Grand Prairie surface: put the opposition in, backed his bowlers to set up the ask, and trusted his batting line-up to then go and get it. A plan with logic behind it. A plan that was immediately stress-tested.

Seattle Orcas Innings: 220-2 (20 Overs)

Tim Seifert and Shayan Jahangir Put on a Show

If you picked up this game at the halfway stage and saw 220-2 on the scoreboard, you'd think TSK had a miserable night. And for fourteen of those twenty overs, that was a fair summary.

Tim Seifert (wk) led the charge from the front — 104 off 66 balls, eight fours, six sixes, a strike rate of 157. He was composed when he needed to be, brutal when he smelled width. The kind of innings that anchors a chase-setter and still haunts a bowling attack long after the final ball.

Shayan Jahangir was the accelerant. He took his time — really took his time — but once he decided to open up, he went after Mohammad Mohsin with everything he had. Four back-to-back sixes off the leg-spinner in a matter of balls, a cameo that shifted the tone of the innings entirely. He finished on 78 off 47: three fours, seven sixes, strike rate 165.96. If you're a Super Kings fan and you'd looked at his dismissal — caught Saiteja Mukkamalla, bowled Amshi de Silva — you'd have exhaled briefly before the scorecard reminded you that Hetmyer and Stoinis were still to come.

They didn't need to do much. Shimron Hetmyer 8*(8) and Marcus Stoinis 13*(3) — with two sixes in three balls from the captain — added the finishing touches.

After 14 overs: 168-0. That was the number that had TSK fans shifting in their seats. A 240-plus total felt inevitable; Orcas looked like they were batting on a different pitch to everyone else.

TSK Wrestle It Back

The Super Kings deserve credit for the reset they managed in the final six overs. They tightened the screws, stayed disciplined in the death, and dragged a potential 240 down to 220. That's not nothing.

But they'll have to look at their no-ball count — four no-balls in the innings — and at an economy rate that left too many runs out there through the middle overs. Mohammad Mohsin's spell of 4-0-51-0 at 12.80 was the low point; handing those four sixes to Jahangir in a single over was where the innings turned.

The pick of the bowlers was Nandre Burger (4-0-27-0, Eco 6.80) and Amshi de Silva (4-0-35-1, Eco 8.80), who did get the big wicket of Jahangir. De Silva is 24 years old, born in Galle — the same city that produced Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan. That's quite a hometown to represent. He bowled with intelligence and held his nerve, and getting Jahangir out when he did helped TSK claw back those final-over runs. Adam Milne's catch-and-bowl to dismiss Seifert was the moment the crowd had been waiting for, but it came two balls too late to truly change the equation.

And watching all of this from the dugout was Akeal Hosein. 10 wickets in MLC, economy of 4.80 — not a single bowler in today's TSK XI has gone at under 7 in MLC history. Mohsin at 8.06. Milne at 7.25. Burger at 8.64. Hosein is a different category entirely, and on a night the middle overs leaked badly, his absence was felt.

The Chase in Context

221 is a big ask — and TSK's chasing history makes it even more daunting. In MLC, they have batted second across all their matches and their record when chasing tells a story of a team that has largely preferred to set totals:

Three wins from ten chases. The highest target they've ever successfully overhauled is 172. They've faced two 200+ targets before — lost both, by 42 runs against Washington and 10 runs against San Francisco. A target of 221 would be TSK's highest ever successful chase in MLC — their previous best was 172, nearly 50 runs fewer. History says this is uncharted territory. The powerplay suggests they don't care.

TSK Chase: Record Powerplay, Guns Blazing

221 off 20. Under the lights at Grand Prairie. The Super Kings came out swinging — and then some.

It didn't start perfectly. Saiteja Mukkamalla, opening the batting, was gone for a duck in the very first over. The kind of start that can set a chase on edge. But Faf du Plessis and Rilee Rossouw had other ideas entirely.

What followed was one of the most breathtaking powerplay displays in MLC history. TSK scored 89-1 in the first six overs — their highest-ever powerplay total in MLC, eclipsing the previous TSK best of 87 set against Washington Freedom in 2025. Only Washington Freedom's 90 (against New York, also in 2025) sits higher in all-time MLC powerplay scores. Faf was on 44 off 16 by the end of the sixth. Rossouw was on 49 off 21, having hooked Marcus Stoinis for a 61-metre six over fine leg at 6.2 that made it look like he was playing in a park.

And then, one ball later, Stoinis got his revenge. A full-length delivery angled across the left-hander, Rossouw went hard through the off-side and got a thick outside edge — and Tim Seifert, the man who'd just scored a hundred against this same attack, flung himself to his left and snaffled it one-handed as the ball almost eluded him. A stunning catch. Rossouw gone for 49 off 21 (7 fours, 2 sixes), and the powerplay closed at 89-1.

The asking rate: under 10 an over. With Faf still at the crease and Milind Kumar walking out to join him, the Super Kings are right in this chase.

Faf Takes Over

And Faf did what Faf does. By the drinks break at the end of over 10, TSK were 123-2 — the run rate ticking along nicely, the equation shrinking. Faf du Plessis was on 60 off 28 balls: his first fifty of the MLC 2026 season, and his seventh MLC half-century overall. No other TSK batter has come close to that number. The man who already holds the record as TSK's all-time leading run-scorer in MLC history — 934 runs from 25 matches, nearly 300 ahead of the next man — was doing exactly what this franchise has always depended on him to do.

Milind Kumar at the other end was ticking along at 12 off 10, measured and sensible, the perfect foil. Ali Sheikh had figures of 2-0-18-0. Over 10 went for 14 — a six from Milind off the last ball, muscled straight down the ground off a touch-too-full Ali Sheikh delivery, announcing himself to the crowd.

TSK need 98 off 60 balls. Faf is set. Grand Prairie is loud.

Faf's Hundred. TSK in Control.

He's done it. Faf du Plessis, 41 years old, raises his bat at Grand Prairie Stadium — his 4th hundred in MLC, and arguably his most important. And with it, he becomes the first batter in MLC history to cross 1000 runs, going past Nicholas Pooran (928) to stand alone at the top of the all-time list. A lofted six over long-on to bring up the fifty partnership, then a nudge behind square off Harmeet Singh to reach three figures. The dug-out rose as one.

After 16 overs: 189-4. Faf on 101 off 46. Wiaan Mulder in alongside him. The over went for 18. 50 needed off 30 balls — and with the captain in this form, it'd take something special to stop the Super Kings now.

TSK Win. History Made.

Nothing special came. Wiaan Mulder applied the finishing touches with a 31 off 15 balls, and with 18.3 overs gone, Faf du Plessis flicked a full-toss from Dasun Shanaka to short fine leg for a single — and that was that.

Texas Super Kings 221-4 (18.3 overs). TSK win by 6 wickets.

A chase that had never been done in MLC history — the highest TSK have ever successfully chased, by nearly 50 runs. Faf finished on 112 off 51, the only man standing between this team and a nervous night, and the first batter in MLC history to 1000 career runs. He might be closing in on 42, but the TSK skipper has lost none of his appetite for making big runs when it matters most.

After losing Mukkamalla for a duck in the first over and falling to 89-1 at the powerplay, few would have predicted this kind of comfort. But the Super Kings never looked rattled. They start MLC 2026 with a win — and a statement.