Smith, Maxwell star in Washington Freedom's emphatic title win
Written by I Dig SportsWashington Freedom 207 for 5 (Smith 88, Maxwell 40) beat San Francisco Unicorns 111 (Ravindra 3-23, Jansen 3-28) by 96 runs
Head, who has struck at over 170 during the tournament, fell early to Pat Cummins when he edged to slip, where Finn Allen held on at the second attempt, having been given a life in the opening over. But Andries Gous gave Freedom's innings impetus as Smith found his feet although when Haris Rauf removed Rachin Ravindra after the midway mark, it was an even contest at 86 for 3.
Then Smith and Maxwell, the latter having found form in the closing stages of the tournament, took charge included 28 coming off the 13th over from Juanoy Drysdale. Smith produced an outrageous scoop for six off Rauf and was in sight of a century when he got a top edge off Cummins.
It appears likely that Smith's T20I career is over following his World Cup omission and absence from the squad to face Scotland and England in September as the selectors look to the future, but it has been a profitable few weeks for him in the US.
Though Maxwell also fell in the next over, superbly caught by Josh Inglis, Freedom were still able to cross 200.
Unicorns' chase never got off the ground. Jake Fraser-McGurk's low-key tournament ended when he edged into the stumps against Jansen to leave him with 81 runs at 11.57 then both Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Allen also fell inside the powerplay to leave a daunting task. Sherfane Rutherford was superbly caught at deep backward square by Ian Holland the ball after being dropped and the rest of the batting fell away amid a huge asking rate.