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Captained by Nicholas Pooran, MI New York created history by winning the final of Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 against Washington Freedom on Monday. After having a dismal league stage where they only won three out of their 10 matches, the side turned up the heat in the playoffs and defeated both San Francisco Unicorns and Texas Super Kings to secure a spot in the final.
A brilliant all-round performance saw MI New York emerge victorious by a margin of just five runs against reigning champions Washington Freedom in the final. This was MI New York's second triumph of the league, making them the only side in the tournament's history to win multiple titles. Notably, they had also won the first edition of the tournament in 2023 by defeating Seattle Orcas in the final.
Coming to the match, Washington Freedom won the toss and elected to bowl first. This decision turned out to backfire at first as MI New York's openers Quinton de Kock and Monank Patel formed a brilliant 72-run partnership. The former was in fine form and smashed the opposing bowlers all around the Grand Prairie Cricket stadium located in Texas.
Lockie Ferguson got the much-needed breakthrough for Washington Freedom in the eighth over and dismissed Monank for 28 runs, but de Kock continued hitting runs from the other end and soon reached a fiery half-century. However, except for him, none of MI New York's other batters were able to put in a great performance. Saurabh Netravalkar managed to get the big wicket of Pooran for 21 runs before de Kock's fabulous inning of 77 was brought an end by Ferguson in the 17th over.
Kieron Pollard was dismissed for a duck by the Kiwi pacer just two deliveries later as MI New York got restricted to 149/5 and it looked like the team was headed for a disappointing end to their innings. However, an impactful late cameo of 22 runs from Kunwarjeet Singh Ballagan got the side to a fighting total of 180/7 at the end of 20 overs.
Boult got MI New York off to a fantastic start
In reply, Trent Boult got the wickets of both Mitch Owen and Andries Gous in the very first over of the innings as Washington Freedom got off to a dreadful start. Then, the duo of Rachin Ravindra and Jack Edwards steadied the side's ship and formed a great partnership of 84 runs. The former was the aggressor among the two and played some fine shots to bring up a well-deserved fifty. It was all looking good for Washington Freedom at one stage as they were cruising twoards their second consecutive MLC title, however Edwards lost his wicket in the ninth over and MI New York got back into the match.
Rachin continued with his inning and this time, formed a strong stand with fellow countryman Glenn Phillips. The Kiwi duo got the side within 50 runs of reaching the target, however Rushil Ugarkar got the massive wicket of Rachin for 70 in the 16th over to restrict Washington Freedom to 130/4. The side still looked to be in-charge as the next batter who walked in was captain Glenn Maxwell.
However, thanks to some brilliant death bowling, MI New York didn't allow both the batters to score freely and the equation eventually came to the Washington Freedom requiring 11 runs in the last over. Ugarkar stepped up big time for MI New York and ended up bowling a fanastic final over under pressure. He got rid of Maxwell for a underwhelming inning of 15 runs from 16 deliveries and also didn't let Phillips score runs from the other end and thanks to his economical 6-run over, MI New York won the MLC title for the second time in their history.
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