by Nine runs. Six wickets. A left-arm pacer who also writes code for a living.
That is the headline of MLC bowling history, and it has not changed since July 2023.
But there are nine more performances beneath it worth knowing — spells that collapsed top-order lineups, flipped close matches, and announced players nobody outside American domestic cricket had heard of.
Best Bowling Figures in an Innings in MLC
Here is the complete ranked list of the best bowling figures in an innings in MLC, with full context for every single one.
Understanding MLC Bowling Figures
Bowling figures in any T20 league record three things: overs bowled, runs allowed, and wickets taken.
Taking four wickets in a T20 innings is an elite result. Five is genuinely rare.
In three seasons of MLC, only four bowlers have reached five or more wickets in a single innings.
The list below includes all four of those performances, plus six standout four-wicket hauls that complete the all-time top ten.
The Complete Top 10: Best Bowling Figures in an Innings in MLC
| Rank | Player | Ovrs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Econ | Team | Opposition | Ground | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SN Netravalkar | 3.5 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 2.34 | Washington | v SF | Morrisville | 22 Jul 2023 |
| 2 | MJ Owen | 3.0 | 0 | 17 | 5 | 5.66 | Washington | v SF | Dallas | 28 Jun 2025 |
| 3 | WD Parnell | 4.0 | 0 | 20 | 5 | 5.00 | Seattle | v Texas | Morrisville | 21 Jul 2023 |
| 4 | AF Milne | 3.4 | 1 | 23 | 5 | 6.27 | Texas | v Seattle | Lauderhill | 5 Jul 2025 |
| 5 | Mohammad Mohsin | 3.0 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 2.66 | Texas | v Los Angeles | Dallas | 13 Jul 2023 |
| 6 | R Ravindra | 2.4 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 4.12 | Washington | v SF | Dallas | 25 Jul 2024 |
| 7 | Mohammad Mohsin | 3.5 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 3.39 | Texas | v SF | Morrisville | 10 Jul 2024 |
| 8 | R Ravindra | 3.5 | 0 | 16 | 4 | 4.17 | Washington | v Texas | Dallas | 19 Jul 2024 |
| 9 | TA Boult | 4.0 | 0 | 17 | 4 | 4.25 | MI New York | v Los Angeles | Lauderhill | 3 Jul 2025 |
| 10 | IG Holland | 4.0 | 0 | 19 | 4 | 4.75 | Washington | v Seattle | Oakland | 14 Jun 2025 |
Washington Freedom owns five of these entries. Texas Super Kings hold three.
Seattle Orcas and MI New York contribute one each.
Pace bowling accounts for eight spells; spin for two — both from the same bowler, both at Dallas.
Spell-by-Spell Breakdown
1. Saurabh Netravalkar — 6/9 | Washington vs San Francisco | Morrisville | 22 Jul 2023
Every league has a defining bowling moment. MLC found its in the fourth match of its first season.
Netravalkar opened with left-arm swing, immediately asked questions the San Francisco top order could not answer, and by the time he was done, had taken six wickets for nine runs in under four overs.
Stoinis, Shadab Khan, and Wade all fell to him. San Francisco were bowled out for 103 chasing 134. The match was not close once he warmed up.
The economy of 2.34 in a T20 game is not an outlier distorted by tail-end wickets — Netravalkar dismissed recognised international batters across multiple phases of the innings. It is the cleanest six-wicket haul you are likely to find in any T20 league, anywhere.
Away from cricket, Netravalkar holds a senior engineering role at Oracle in the USA.
He represents the American national side and became globally prominent at the 2024 T20 World Cup for defending 18 off the last over against Pakistan. MLC fans already knew that composure was not an accident.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 2.34 | Washington won by 30 runs |
2. Mitchell Owen — 5/17 | Washington vs San Francisco | Dallas | 28 Jun 2025
Owen arrived at MLC 2025 as a batter. He left this particular match as something harder to categorise.
With San Francisco at 97/2 and tracking their chase smoothly, Owen came on and removed five batters in three overs — pace variations, in-swing, the kind of bowling that a specialist seamer spends years developing.
He was simultaneously among the tournament’s highest run-scorers. Washington won by 12 runs. Owen took Player of the Match for both contributions.
The only thing unusual about a batting all-rounder taking 5/17 in an MLC innings is that it had never happened before.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | 0 | 17 | 5 | 5.66 | Washington won by 12 runs |
3. Wayne Parnell — 5/20 | Seattle vs Texas | Morrisville | 21 Jul 2023
Four days before Netravalkar took his record, Parnell made history as the first bowler in MLC to take five wickets in an innings.
The Morrisville surface gave him some assistance, but mostly he created his own — mixing lengths and angles to keep the Texas Super Kings lineup guessing from the first ball.
Captaining Seattle Orcas in their debut season, he won the match almost single-handedly.
Seattle took it by eight wickets, and Parnell earned Player of the Match.
A South African international with over 300 T20 appearances across franchise cricket and international duty, he was MLC’s clearest signal in Year One that it could attract and retain genuine global talent.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 0 | 20 | 5 | 5.00 | Seattle won by 8 wickets |
4. Adam Milne — 5/23 | Texas vs Seattle | Lauderhill | 5 Jul 2025
Milne’s 2025 MLC numbers read like a misprint. Fourteen wickets across five innings at an average of 8.5, with a 5/23 at the centre of it.
In Lauderhill — a ground that offers very little lateral movement and sits at sea level — he generated enough pace and bounce to make the Seattle batting order look underprepared.
Texas won the match by 51 runs and climbed to the top of the 2025 standings off the back of it.
Milne, the New Zealand fast bowler, was the primary reason.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.4 | 1 | 23 | 5 | 6.27 | Texas won by 51 runs |
5. Mohammad Mohsin — 4/8 | Texas vs Los Angeles | Dallas | 13 Jul 2023
The most remarkable thing about Mohsin’s 4/8 in MLC 2023 was not the figures themselves — it was who fell to him. Sunil Narine, Adam Zampa, and Lockie Ferguson are not tail-enders handed cheap wickets.
Taking all three for eight runs total across three overs, on a flat Dallas surface, was the kind of performance that makes a career.
Mohsin had no international profile entering the tournament.
He had been identified through the Dallas Premier League, moved to the USA from Pakistan in 2021, and arrived as a wildcard.
He has since become the Texas Super Kings’ all-time leading wicket-taker in MLC.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 2.66 | Texas won by 69 runs |
6. Rachin Ravindra — 4/11 | Washington vs San Francisco | Dallas | 25 Jul 2024
Left-arm spin is not a weapon most T20 captains reach for in a knockout match with a chase of any substance.
Ravindra made that decision look inspired.
His 4/11 in the MLC 2024 Qualifier dismissed Sanjay Krishnamurthi early and dismantled whatever rhythm San Francisco had built, strangling the chase before it gathered pace.
Twelve wickets for the tournament at an average of 6.08. That is a number that belongs in the red-ball game.
Ravindra produced it against T20 lineups stocked with internationals.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.4 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 4.12 | Washington won by 7 wickets |
7. Mohammad Mohsin — 4/13 | Texas vs San Francisco | Morrisville | 10 Jul 2024
Mohsin’s second appearance on this list, a season after his debut four-wicket haul, confirmed the first one was not a product of conditions or fortune.
He became the first bowler in MLC history to record multiple four-wicket performances — and did it with sharper execution, better control of length, and a 3.39 economy that matched the standard of his breakthrough spell.
| Overs | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 | 13 | 4 | 3.39 |
8. Rachin Ravindra — 4/16 | Washington vs Texas | Dallas | 19 Jul 2024
Ravindra’s second four-wicket haul of MLC 2024 came in the semi-final.
Seven of his twelve tournament wickets arrived in the knockout rounds — a pattern that either reflects excellent big-match temperament or a bowler who reads match situations better than most.
Probably both. Washington went on to win the title in the following match.
| Overs | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 | 16 | 4 | 4.17 |
9. Trent Boult — 4/17 | MI New York vs Los Angeles | Lauderhill | 3 Jul 2025
Boult has been one of the world’s best T20 new-ball bowlers for the better part of a decade, and this spell was a clinic in why.
Unmukt Chand bagged a golden duck off the opening delivery.
Andre Russell — a player capable of rewriting any scorecard on his own — went before the powerplay ended.
Andre Fletcher followed. The LA Knight Riders’ top three were gone before their innings had any foundation.
A second spell removed Sherfane Rutherford and shut down the last attempt at a recovery. MI New York won by eight wickets.
Boult was back inside the Mumbai Indians global network after IPL 2025 and arrived in MLC with the same sharpness he had shown all season.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 0 | 17 | 4 | 4.25 | MI New York won by 8 wickets |
10. Ian Holland — 4/19 | Washington vs Seattle | Oakland | 14 Jun 2025
Seattle reached 66/1 after six overs and looked well-placed. Holland changed that, and then some.
Two wickets in the 14th over. A third to remove Cameron Gannon. A total restricted to 145/9 from a platform that had pointed to 170-plus.
Washington chased it down by five wickets. Holland was Player of the Match.
His legcutter was the standout delivery — deceiving the Seattle middle order rather than simply beating them with pace.
Holland is a domestic USA cricketer. MLC’s depth of talent is one of the things this list quietly illustrates.
| Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wickets | Economy | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 0 | 19 | 4 | 4.75 | Washington won by 5 wickets |
Team-Wise Breakdown
| Team | Entries in Top 10 | Best Spell |
|---|---|---|
| Washington Freedom | 5 | 6/9 — Netravalkar |
| Texas Super Kings | 3 | 5/23 — Milne |
| Seattle Orcas | 1 | 5/20 — Parnell |
| MI New York | 1 | 4/17 — Boult |
Season-Wise Distribution
| Season | Spells in Top 10 | Top Spell |
|---|---|---|
| MLC 2023 | 4 | 6/9 — Netravalkar |
| MLC 2024 | 3 | 4/11 — Ravindra |
| MLC 2025 | 3 | 5/17 — Owen |
Bowling Style Breakdown
Eight pace spells, two spin. MLC pitches are built for high-scoring cricket — consistently flat, fast, and boundary-friendly — which is why the spinners who appear here (both Ravindra entries, both in Dallas) are the real outliers.
Their wickets came from flight and variation in conditions, offering nothing from the surface.
The pacers largely created their own movement through skill and rhythm rather than relying on helpful conditions.
The Venues Behind the Spells
Dallas and Morrisville have each hosted three of the top ten bowling performances in MLC history.
That is not coincidental. Both grounds have hosted the most matches across three seasons, giving them a larger sample — but both have also seen conditions that reward skilled seamers when the humidity is right, or the surface has a hint of green.
Lauderhill and Oakland account for one each. The only MLC venue yet to produce a top-ten spell is New York’s ground, which has so far leaned heavily in favour of batters.
FAQs: Best Bowling Figures in an Innings in MLC
- What are the best bowling figures in a single MLC innings?
Saurabh Netravalkar’s 6/9 for Washington Freedom against San Francisco Unicorns on July 22, 2023 — the only six-wicket haul in MLC’s three-season history.
- How many five-wicket hauls have there been in MLC history?
Four: Netravalkar (6/9), Parnell (5/20), Owen (5/17), and Milne (5/23).
- Who is the MLC top wicket-taker for Texas Super Kings?
Mohammad Mohsin holds the Texas Super Kings’ all-time wicket record in MLC, with two four-wicket hauls contributing to that total.
- Which MLC venue has produced the most top bowling spells?
Dallas and Morrisville are level with three top-ten performances each.
- Has Washington Freedom produced the most elite bowling spells in MLC?
Yes — five of the all-time top ten belong to Washington Freedom players.
- What is the best T20 bowling economy rate in MLC history for a top-10 spell?
Netravalkar’s 2.34 in his record 6/9 spell, with Mohsin’s 2.66 (4/8) the second-best on the list.
Conclusion:
Nine runs and six wickets will always be the headline.
But the ten spells on this list collectively show that MLC is not quite the one-sided batting contest its marketing sometimes suggests.
When bowlers have found rhythm in this league — whether through swing, pace, spin, or sheer variety — they have produced performances worth putting alongside the best in world T20 cricket.
Netravalkar’s record may last another decade. The rest of this list is still being written.
Stay Updated
MLC 2025 is ongoing. If a new spell breaks into this top ten before the season concludes, this list will be updated. Check back after the final.
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