This finishes our coverage of the match today. Thank you for tuning in. Join us for the second game of the doubleheader today, as the San Francisco Unicorns won the toss and chose to bowl first against the Los Angeles Knight Riders. A win for the Unicorns will secure their position in the top two, while the Texas Super Kings will drop to third place. This is Rashad Mahbub signing off on behalf of Chandan Duorah and the ESPNcricinfo team. Goodnight, and goodbye.

Most Valuable Player, Glenn Maxwell: "[Enjoying bowling] It's nice to be back at the bowling crease. Obviously, I missed the first three games with my finger injury, and it's been nice to get back to the bowling crease. It gives our attack a bit more balance as well and probably takes the load off a few of our quicks. [Benefit for qualifying early] I don't think it sort of changed. Our sole goal was to be in the top two, to give ourselves that extra chance, and to get down to the last game and still need to win that last game, just shows how tight the competition's been this year. We are really proud of the effort that we were able to put in today. There was a bit of speculation about whether we were going to start on time with that storm coming in. But to get a reasonably full game in and perform like we did is really pleasing. [Batting approach] It was for guys to just assess the conditions and play as they saw fit and play accordingly. And I thought they did that really well. And they took on certain matchups that suited them, and we made sure the run rate never got out of hand. And we were able to explode a little bit when we had wickets in hand in the back half of that game. So, GP [Glenn Phillips] and Andries [Gous] did an absolutely brilliant job of getting us home. I think it's really important that we enjoy this moment that we've been able to achieve a top two finish and don't lose sight of what we've done really well throughout this tournament, which has been adapting to conditions really quickly and being able to adapt our game plan. And we've been pretty fluid with that the whole way through. And we'll have to do the same thing when we get back to Dallas. [Everybody fit?] I'm hoping so [laughter]. You never know when you get to the game day; there's always someone sick or someone injured, so hopefully, fingers crossed, we have no more injuries for the rest of the tournament."

Nicholas Pooran: "All praise to Jesus and thanks. [Seven changes] I mean, this game was really important, obviously, Washington as well. We knew that once we batted first, we obviously qualified, right? It's a really good opportunity for us to give the other guys who've been a part of the team and didn't get a chance. It's really important to get an opportunity. The senior guys really wanted the guys to go out there and get an opportunity as well. It's difficult to be in a tournament and not get opportunities. We know that as cricketers, the results didn't go in our favour today, but that's fine. Guys got the opportunity, and they got the chance to live. [The Miami leg] Well, coming here, we won two of the other three, so we are very pleased. Qualifying was our number one goal, and we came here and we got the results. I believe in staying positive again. We're really happy to be in the position we are in now. We know going to the playoffs, it's a different competition now, and we're looking forward to that challenge."

6:50 pm Big news! With their win today, the Washington Freedom have officially locked in a spot in the top two and will now play in Qualifier 1. Chasing 112 runs, the Washington Freedom had a bit of a shaky start, losing Mitch Owen in just the second over. Gous and Ravindra kept the scoreboard ticking, but Ravindra then fell to a juicy full toss from Allen. Chapman was sent up the order, and he immediately went on the attack, easing the pressure that New York's bowlers were building. Chapman made a quick 27 runs off just 18 balls before getting out, and Maxwell followed him back to the pavilion in the very next over. But Gous then took control, smashing three boundaries in the 14th over and taking all the pressure off. He played a brilliant, unbeaten innings of 46 runs off 34 balls, guiding his team home. Ultimately, 112 runs weren't quite enough for the New York bowlers to defend, even though they managed to pick up some crucial wickets in the middle overs. Lulus grabbed two wickets, while Kenjige and Allen each took one.

Washington Freedom won by 6 wickets

Scores level