Mumbai: Shimron Hetmyer, the Rajasthan Royals sensation, made waves in the inaugural edition of Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 with a pair of match-winning unbeaten scores of 97 and 64 in two back-to-back games in 48 hours as the Seattle Orcas rode to comprehensive wins against MI New York and the Los Angeles Knight Riders.
The West Indian smashed an unbeaten 97 off 40 balls in the innings of 238 on June 27, 2025, to help Seattle Orcas record the highest chase in MLC history against MI New York at Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas. Hetmyer had smashed nine sixes and five fours as he won the game for Seattle in style, taking them to a five-match win from a losing streak with a last-ball six over the rope off Kieron Pollard. “I’m quite tired, but yeah, I just prayed before the game, so I am just thankful that we were able to go across the line; I was just focused on that,” he said of the match. “I had a chat with my wife, and we just prayed before the game,” he added.
In the second match on June 28, 2025, Hetmyer helped Seattle beat the LA Knight Riders after the visitors had posted 202/4 on the back of an unbeaten 65 off 39 and 43 off 21 by Andre Russell and Rovman Powell, respectively. Seattle chased down the 203 with one ball to spare to end at 206/5 with an unbeaten 64 off 26 balls by Hetmyer (six sixes and four fours) and a 73 off 38 by Aaron Jones. Hetmyer was adjudged the Player of the Match for the second successive game.
Hetmyer, in the two games, has scored 161 runs off 66 balls and has been not out each time, having struck 15 sixes and nine fours. He has a strike rate of 243.94 from his two-game heroics, and his exploits have taken the Seattle Orcas to the fourth position on the points table of MLC 2025, with five wins and two losses. The LA Knight Riders, on the other hand, have tumbled to the bottom, having lost six games out of the seven matches played. Fans took to X to react to Hetmyer’s two-match exploits, with one user terming his knocks as “T20’s best” and another simply praising him as “match-changing.”
Hetmyer will look to continue his fine form in the hope of Rajasthan Royals retaining him after their successful IPL 2024 campaign, where he was bought for INR 11 crore for IPL 2025, while his domestic teammate Vaibhav Suryavanshi was bought by Royals for a base price of INR 1.10 crore. Hetmyer, though, had a poor season with the bat for Royals in IPL 2025 and was especially criticised for not being able to successfully close chases. But his MLC 2025 heroics are a warning of him coming back with a bang in the next season.