MI New York (MINY) wins the inaugural season of the Major League Cricket 2023 after defeating Seattle Orcas (SO) in the final by 7 wickets. Nicholas Pooran, the man leading from the front shows a pure form of destructiveness and gives his team an easy win. Finally Mumbai Indians add one more trophy to their league series. Seattle Orcas made 183/9 in 20 overs which MI New York chased down easily in 16 overs.
Having finished fourth in the group stages, MINY won the Eliminator against Washington Freedom by 16 runs and then in the Challenger defeated Texas Super Kings by 6 wickets. And then in the final performed brilliantly in the batting.
In the final MINY won the toss and opted to bowl first. SO lost their 1st wicket in the 5th over, when Rashid Khan got the wicket of Nauman Anwar. Anwar made only 9 runs. (25-1). Then Steven Taylor gets the next wicket by dismissing Shehan Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya made 16 runs. (66-2).
Heinrich Klassen was the next man gone. He didn’t score much and Rashid Khan got his wicket. Klassen made only 4 runs. (91-3). After that for the 4th wicket 51 runs added by Quinton de Kock and Shubham Ranjane. De Kock played a brilliant knock of 87 runs in 52 balls. In his knock he hits 9 fours and 4 sixes. But Trent Boult knocked him and got his wicket. (142-4).
Imad Wasim also couldn’t score much and Rashid Khan again shows his brilliancy in the final by dismissing him. Wasim made only 7 runs. (157-5). In the next over Boult dismissed Shubham Ranjane who scored 29 runs. (157-6). In that same over, Boult gets another one and gets the wicket of Andrew Tye. Tye only contributed with 1 run. (163-7).
Then David Wiese ended the blasting innings of Pretorius who scored 21 runs in just 7 balls, including 3 fours and a six. (181-8). And lastly the skipper of Seattle Orcas gets run out in the final delivery. He made 2 runs. (183-9).
Rashid Khan and Trent Boult get 3 wickets each and Steven Taylor and David Wiese settle with 1 wicket each.
MI gets a bad start as they lost Steven Taylor in the very first over. Imad Wasim gets the credit. Taylor departed without scoring any runs. (0-1). But Seattle Orcas don’t know after that, Pooran will come and desolate them. In the 5th over, Parnell strikes by taking the wicket of Shayan Jahangir. He made only 10 runs. (62-2).
After that for the 3rd wicket, Pooran and Dewald Brewis put 75 runs together. Where Brewis only contributed with 20 runs in that partnership before he got run out. (137-3). Nicholas firstly completed his half century in just 16 balls and then in 40 balls he completed his century. A full domination shown by him in the final. At the end, he along with Tim David who scored 10 runs played the winning shot. Pooran made 137 runs in 55 balls with a blasting strike rate of 249.09. He also hits 10 fours and 13 sixes.
Only Imad Wasim and Wayne Parnell were able to get 1 wicket each.
Major League Cricket Stats and Records 2023:
Most Runs: Nicholas Pooran, MI New York (388 runs in 8 innings).
Most Wickets: Trent Boult, MI New York (22 wickets in 8 innings).
Most centuries: Nicholas Pooran ,MI New York & Heinrich Klassen, Seattle Orcas – 1.
Most Half Centuries: Quinton de Kock, Seattle Orcas – 3.
Highest Score: Nicholas Pooran, MI New York against Seattle Orcas (137 runs in 55 balls).
Most Sixes: Nicholas Pooran, MI New York – 34.
Most Fours: Quinton de Kock, Seattle Orcas – 26.
Highest Total: 215/5 in 20 overs by San Francisco Unicorns vs MI New York.
Lowest Total: 50/10 in 20 overs by Los Angeles Knight Riders vs MI New York.
Best Bowling Figures: Saurabh Netravalkar, Washington Freedom (6/9 in 3.5 overs) against San Francisco Unicorns.
Cameron Gannon Awarded Domestic Player of the Tournament,
“Very Happy, But tonight’s about MI New York. Congratulations to them. Haven’t seen a knock like that. It’s been a great tournament. The quality has been exceptional. It has been fun playing with the best players in the world, going to be fantastic for USA cricket going forward. I think I would like to play in the World Cup someday, that would be nice. I am 34, not looking too far into the future for now.”
Wayne Parnell, Seattle Orcas Captain,
“When someone plays a knock like that, you have to give credit. Obviously disappointed to have lost, but credit to Nicky and his team. I think it was a lot slower initially, but it started to skid under lights. We thought it was a decent total, but looking at Pooran I didn’t think he was going to miss out. Credit to the organizers, credit to our owners for picking such good players.”
Nicholas Pooran, MI New York Captain & Player of the Match,
“Chatting today we spoke about creating history. We lost our captain, and a couple of players. In the end I am proud as everyone contributed. We knew it was a good batting wicket, we were prepared for this moment from a week ago. We had to be confident and believe in each other. We got over the line today, we were put under pressure earlier this week. You are going to bat like Nicky P, I told myself, and backed my skill. I just had to execute my skills. I have been working on it since the last 5-6 years.
….It was really special for me. I just want to thank all the fans and supporters, they have been really amazing.”