On Monday, July 31, MI New York defeated the Seattle Orcas in the championship match by a margin of seven wickets to claim the inaugural Major League Cricket (MLC) title. Nicholas Pooran, the replacement captain, shone with the bat as he scored an astounding 137* in just 55 balls. The MLC does not have official T20 status, so this inning won’t be recorded in his records.
Since the event took place in the USA, an Associate Member country, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has not given it official T20 status. It is noteworthy that the ICC has sanctioned the MLC, but regrettably, unlike well-known competitions like the Abu Dhabi T10 League, US Masters T10 League, Global T20 Canada, and ILT20, the six-team competition hasn’t received any funding. This shouldn’t, however, diminish the significance of Nicholas Pooran’s lightning-fast knock, which lit the stage on fire.
The remarkable inning featured 10 fours and 13 sixes from the southpaw, who needed just 40 balls to achieve the three-figure mark. In the summit match, Pooran took over as captain in place of usual captain Kieron Pollard, helping the MI brand win another championship.
Trent Boult and Rashid Khan hold the top positions.
In the MLC 2023 championship match at Dallas’ Grand Prairie Stadium, Nicholas Pooran won the toss and chose to bowl first. For the Wayne Parnell-led team, Quinton de Kock hit a brilliant 87 off just 52 balls, showing that he was in top form. appearances by Shubham Ranjane (29 years old off 16) and Dwaine Pretorius (21 off 7) helped SEO set a lofty objective of 184 for MINY. The goal, though, may have been higher than 200 if seasoned bowlers Trent Boult and Rashid Khan hadn’t performed admirably under pressure.
Prior to the championship match, the Afghan spinner had an unexpectedly quiet tournament. Rashid, though, demonstrated that top players step up when the stakes are high by finishing with astounding numbers of 3/9 in his four overs. Boult, on the other hand, wasn’t as efficient, but he did manage to get rid of de Kock and Ranjane, two crucial wickets that helped stop the SEO innings’ run-flow.
Thanks to Pooran’s blitzkrieg, Miny managed to reach the challenging target of 184 with four overs remaining despite losing the wicket of Steven Taylor in the opening over.