Even though the overall rules are pretty simple, there is a lot of terminology to learn and honestly, I am not quite there yet. Even if you can’t tell the difference between a “yorker” and a “googly” (me neither), it is still an exciting watch.

In Grand Prairie, Texas, which has a stadium that normally handles a capacity of 7,200 people (but can be expanded), Major League Cricket (MLC) has been holding their “post season” championship series. A cricket “season” has handled more like a large tournament. MLC had just completed its season on Sunday and is not expected to return until June of next year.

Challenger - Texas Super Kings v MI New York

On Friday (July 11), MLC held their Challenger match, which was a “third place” match between the Texas Super Kings and MI New York. The winner of this match would advance.

In this match, New York won the coin toss and elected to field (bat second). In cricket, there’s only two “innings”. The team that strikes first will play and then the team that bowled in the first innings (yes, they do use it in plural form) will “chase” whatever score the striking team puts up in order to try to beat them. There is no second chances. Therefore, Texas will bat first. They will score 166 runs on 5 wickets (outs). Faf du Plessis picks up 59 runs on 42 balls and Akeal Hosein for 55 runs on 32 balls. In T20 cricket, it’s a big deal for a player to achieve 50 runs in a match.

MI New York will need to get 167 runs (this is known as the “target”). New York’s Monaul Patel would get held at 49 runs. At the end of the 19th over with the score tied and needing only one run to win Nicolas Pooran would hit the game winning 6 (think of it like a baseball home run) to win the match for MI New York. Hey would score 52 for the match on 36 balls.

MI New York would win the match by 7 wickets. Final score: Texas Super Kings 166-5 (166 runs and 5 wickets) ~ MI New York 172-3. MI New York only need 19 overs to win, meaning they won with 6 balls to spare. MI New York moves to the championship where they will take on the Washington Freedom.

Championship - Washington Freedom v MI New York

On Sunday (July 13), MLC held the championship match of their 2025 season between the Washington Freedom and MI New York. Washington wins the coin toss and has opted to field.

In this match, MI New York will be striking. Monank Patel, who led the team to victory in the challenger ended up with 28 runs on 22 balls. Quinton de Kock racks up an astounding 77 runs on 46 balls, including 6 fours and 4 sixes. Overall, MI New York would rack up 180 runs with 7 wickets.

Washington’s target is 181. Rachin Ravindra would also rack up an impressive 70 runs on 41 balls including 8 fours and 2 sixes. Two balls left, and the Freedom is at 171-5. They need 10 runs to win. This means a six and a four can do it. Obus Pienaar would come into the game after a Glenn Maxwell wicket. The first ball to Pienaar would pass him unhit but not hitting the stumps. A dot ball (a ball that counts but has no runs). Pienaar would then hit a four, which is not sufficient enough to win.

MI New York wins the match by 5 runs and takes the Major League Cricket title for 2025. There is plenty more cricket to watch throughout the year on Willow TV and Willow Sports. You should check it out!

Another one of our favorites, Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League will start in November (remember, it’s summertime down there).

Official match highlight reels

Challenger - Texas Super Kings v MI New York

Championship - Washington Freedom v MI New York

During the Unicorns powerplay (the first 6 overs) with two wickets already fallen, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, who is a familiar face from the Warehouse Games Ball In Play 3 would go for 5 runs on 7 balls after a bobbling catch by Trent Boult. With four wickets already fallen, a miscommunication would result in in Hassan Khan getting run out on a direct throw by Nicholas Pooran giving Kahn the golden duck. By the end of the powerplay, the Unicorns had already racked up 5 (out of a possible 10) wickets and scored 27 runs.

With seven wickets down, Xavier Bartlett would liven things up going for 44 runs off of 19 balls with 2 fours and 4 sixes and a 50 run partnership with Brody Couch. Liam Plunkett would hit out close to the boundary caught by Kieron Pollard to pull the 10th wicket. The Unicorns end their innings with 131 runs and a run rate of 6.83 with 9 extras in 19.1 overs.

In the chase, MI New York has a target of 132 runs. They need to average 6.6 runs per over as light showers fall over Grand Prairie. MI New York would get 37 runs during the powerplay and would stay ahead of the Unicorns the whole way through midway in the 12th over, where during the Unicorns’ 12th over, Xavier Bartlett would nail three sixes and a four. That, along with four extras coming off MI bowler Nosthush Kenjije would give the Unicorns a 27-run spike in that over as shown on this worm diagram:

If you are new to cricket, this diagram is called a “worm”. It tracks the number of runs achieved by each team at similar times during the match. The red dots along each line indicates when the team made a wicket (out).

MI New York would keep a steady pace until it mattered. Trent Boult (remember him from the bobbling catch) would fire the afterburners in the 19th over with two sixes and then in the 20th over and 3 balls in, Nosthush Kenjije would hit in the winning run

MI New York beats the San Francisco Unicorns by 2 wickets. On Friday (July 11), MI New York will take on the Texas Super Kings and the winner of that match will face the Washington Freedom for the championship on July 13.

Major League Cricket matches, along with matches from around the world are available on Willow TV.

Full highlight reel from MLC

First, a note from the Michi: This was a very difficult story to write as these two situations do somewhat intertwine with each other and I try to keep spacing between articles whenever appropriate.

The abandonment of a cricket match is no big deal. It is just a cricket match. But, the destruction and loss of life in Central Texas, this is something that we can’t just ignore. I felt it was appropriate to write about both in a single article.

My heart goes out to those families who have been directly impacted by this disaster and my love goes out to the NFL and MLB teams that are stepping up to do their part in the relief efforts.

Major League Cricket was to hold the first of two “qualifier” matches in Grand Prairie, Texas last night, only to have the game “washed out”. That is cricket-speak for what we would call in baseball a “rained out game”.

But first, some backstory on how this OG derby nerd discovered cricket

During my derby days, if you were to mention the sport of cricket to me, I would have answered back with only a very very blank stare. Over the years, I had always been a little intimidated by the sport I think like others who have been raised in a non-cricket nation, especially with cricket formats such as test match, which can go on for days.

This changed a few years ago during “The Crud” when I discovered the “T-20” format, which was designed to be played in one evening. With that, I learned about the game. Watching match highlight videos from Australia’s Big Bash League as well as those by others, such as this one from Jomboy Media helped increase my understanding of the game and peaked my interest to take this sport seriously. I mean, next to (what we call) soccer, cricket is one of the world’s most played sports.

After “The Crud”, cricket starts to take a foothold in the USA

In 2024, just after Major League Cricket started in the US (which we will discuss in a bit), the International Cricket Commission held the Men’s T-20 World Cup in North America which included venues in the United States such as a temporary stadium that was set up just outside of New York City and in Grand Prairie, Texas, the main permanent cricket stadium that is the home of Major League Cricket (MLC).

MLC is currently in their third season and has already played matches Grand Prairie, as well as at the Oakland Coliseum and in Broward County, Florida. In the United States, a significant amount of cricket fans are from the South Asian diaspora, especially from India where the Indian Premier League (IPL) is considered the crown jewel of all professional T-20 cricket.

MLC has six franchise teams, the Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom. Like with franchise sports in the USA, each of these six teams is individually owned, many are backed by Indian interests, which also own teams in other cricket leagues worldwide. Team names such as the Knight Riders and Super Kings are used in the IPL and in other teams worldwide. The “MI” in MI New York stands for the Mumbai Indians, a team in the IPL. It’s important to note that at this time, even though the teams are associated with cities, it does not mean that they actually play in those cities right now. All of the matches are centralized in the existing venues. The game right now is only drawing crowd sizes in the 4-figures. However, there were a couple of larger crowds (still in the 4-figures) in Oakland when the Unicorns played at the former home of the A’s.

Cricket is played very differently than other sports that we are used to in the United States. There are no 4+ month “seasons” like we are used to with the big-four sports. Instead, the game is played in a elongated tournament format that can go over a period of about 40 days in a year. MLC started the 2025 season on June 12 and holds 34 matches ending on July 13. Last night would have started what we call in America, the “playoffs” for MLC.

Now, let’s fast forward to last night

The state of Texas, especially the central part of the state, has been ravaged by torrential rain and flash flooding. In Kerr County, located northwest of San Antonio, flash flooding on the Guadalupe River has caused extensive damage and resulting in the loss of at least 110 lives. This death toll includes many young people attending various camps along the river including Camp Mystic, a camp used by Girl Scouts.

Grand Prairie is pretty far away from Kerr County. It is actually located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Last night, a major thunderstorm came through the region dropping a significant amount of rain.

On Tuesday night, MLC was holding their first challenger match between the Washington Freedom and the Texas Super Kings with the winner going to the championship match.

Dangerously close lightning strikes prompted MLC officials to inform fans to seek shelter.

Freelance cricket journalist Peter Della Penna captured this photo from inside of the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium showing an area along the boundary with substantial flooding:

Peter Della Penna is a freelance journalist who travels the world to cover cricket. He very informative, especially on the subject of cricket in the United States. If the cricket bug finally bites you, I strongly suggest following him on Facebook.

The MLC would eventually abandon (cancel) the match. In international cricket rules, rain delays are handled very differently than what we would normally experience in US sports. In cricket, there’s normally a time limit on how long a rain delay can go and in cases where the field could be made ready, it may result in a shortened match and then a math formula is used to create a final score as it was a full T-20 match. In cases where the match is fully abandoned, it is not “made up”. Instead, there are rules that will declare a winner of the match and the tournament moves on to the next match.

In the case of last night, the MLC announced that because the Washington Freedom held a superior position on the points table during the group stage, they qualify as a finalist for the championship match that will be played in Grand Prairie on July 13. Tonight (July 9), the San Francisco Unicorns will play MI New York. The winner of tonight’s match will take on the Texas Super Kings on July 11. The winner of the July 11 match will face the Washington Freedom in the July 13 championship match.

How to watch cricket in the USA

A look at YouTube will provide you with an abundance of cricket matches from around the world. This includes matches from the US-based Minor League Cricket, which can be found on the MLC YouTube channel. The major leagues, such as MLC, Big Bash League, IPL and the UK Vitality Blast Series are available through the subscription service Willow TV. Willow also operates Willow Sports, a free to air streaming channel which is chock full of cricket content, including recent and classic matches from around the world.

This Michi loves cricket, especially the T-20 format. If you enjoy and understand baseball, you may enjoy cricket, especially if you love a baseball game with a lot of homers.

Sports respond to the Texas flooding

On their Facebook page, MLC is encouraging their fans to donate directly to the Community Foundation of Texas Hill Country. The NFL Foundation, the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans have combined to donate $1.5 million towards central Texas communities impacted by flooding. The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are each, pledging $1 million in relief. The flooding is having direct tragic impacts on family members throughout the major sports community. This includes the brother of former San Francisco Giants pitcher Tyler Walker and the 9-year-old niece of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, who was among one of the confirmed dead from Camp Mystic.

The Michi also recommends a donation to The Y’all Squad. Started by weather content creator Ryan Hall, The Y’all Squad is a §501(c)(3) nonprofit that purchases supplies and travels right into the affected areas to distribute needed food and supplies to those directly impacted by natural disasters, especially tornadoes. Their efforts have been documented and noted.