Allen smashes Gayle’s T20 cricket sixes record in MLC opener | Cricket News

New Zealand and San Francisco’s Finn Allen hits record 19 sixes against Washington in 2025 Major League Cricket opener.

San Francisco Unicorns opener Finn Allen smashed a record 19 sixes in his incredible 151 off 51 balls against defending champions Washington Freedom in the opening match of the new Major League Cricket (MLC) season.

The New Zealand international opener’s knock on Thursday evening at Unicorns’ Oakland Coliseum, was the Twenty20 league’s highest individual score since its 2023 debut season.

Allen’s six-hitting display passed the previous record of 18 in a T20 match held by West Indian great Chris Gayle and Estonian Sahil Chauhan, who registered the knock in the European Cricket League.

The Unicorns amassed 269-5, an MLC team record, with Allen taking 34 balls to bring up his 100 against a bowling attack that included fellow New Zealand internationals Ben Sears, Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips.

Phillips took a catch at long-on to dismiss the 26-year-old off Mitchell Owen’s bowling in the 18th over of the innings.

Freedom, led by Australian international Glenn Maxwell, were all out for 146 in 13.1 overs in reply, suffering a comprehensive 123-run defeat.

Allen, who was named Player of the Match, has already smashed two centuries and five fifties in 52 T20 international innings for the Kiwis, and hits at a strike rate of 163.

This was his 22nd fifty in domestic T20 cricket, where he has also scored two centuries but hits at a strike rate of 173.

The Auckland-born Allen, who has yet to make his Test debut, has also appeared in 22 one-day internationals for the Kiwis, where he has hit five fifties.