MI New York gets by Super Kings and the Freedom to win another MLC title
MI New York beats Texas Super Kings by 7 wickets and Washington Freedom by 5 runs.
Cricket is a very intriguing sport but and is played widely around the world. Unfortunately, in the United States, due to the influence of our major tier 1 sports (such as MLB baseball, NFL football, NBA basketball and NHL hockey), it does not get the same attention here. It is mainly popular in the United States within the southeast Asian (e.g. Indian) diaspora. America is missing out on a great game.
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