MI New York have made a bang entry in the final of Major League Cricket (MLC), and all the credit for this goes to the stormy batting of Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran.
By defeating Texas Super Kings (TSK) by seven wickets in Challengers on Friday, MINY showed that one should learn from them how to turn the tables even after losing.
Pollard was adjudged the Player of the Match for his brilliant performance.
TSK vs MINY: Power-packed action
TSK chose to bat at the start of the match. Faf du Plessis and Smit Patel made a steady start, but MINY bowlers soon broke their back.
Tristan Lus and Rushil Ugarkar devastated TSK’s top order and brought the score to 43/3 by the end of the powerplay. Faf played an innings of 59 runs, but at the other end Marcus Stoinis struggled to score runs.
In the last overs, Akeel Hosein (55*) and Donovan Ferreira made some noise, taking TSK to 166/5 in 20 overs.
MINY’s batting started a bit shaky. Quinton de Kock and Michael Bracewell were out early. But Monank Patel (49) played cautiously and took advantage of TSK’s poor fielding.
His catch was missed twice, and he took full advantage of it. Then came Pollard’s storm!
Pollard heated up the atmosphere by hitting a six off Noor Ahmed’s very first ball. After this, he targeted Zia-ul-Haq and scored 22 runs in five balls.
Nicholas Pooran (52*) also played a captaincy innings and dashed TSK’s hopes by hitting fours and sixes off Adam Milne’s balls.
MINY needed 50 runs in the 17th over, but the pair of Pollard and Pooran scored 19 runs in Stoinis’ over and won with one over to spare.
TSK vs MINY: Waiting for the final
Now MINY will face defending champion Washington Freedom in the final on Sunday. The way MINY made a comeback even after losing six out of seven matches is commendable.
This pair of Pollard and Pooran proved that as long as they are on the crease, no target is impossible.
