Our champion from Cape Town joins the #OneFamily in New York! Tristan Luus, the right-arm fast bowler is all set to join the MI new York squad as a replacement for Rashid Khan, who is not available for this season of the Cognizant Major Cricket League. Tristan is 19, tall and nippy. Having idolized and moulded his bowling action around Dale Steyn, he has been a part of the under-19 World Cup, SA Emerging side, Proteas A team against Sri Lanka A in 2024 and plays for MI Cape Town in SA20, where he recently won the 2025 title. That’s right, let’s bring it home in the USA as well. It’s great to have you in the Blue and Gold, Tristan!

Arghhhh. Just not the result you want against your game after giving a fight as proper as this. Let’s face it, the Washington Freedom were favorites to win the game with the asking rate always being in their favor. But the way the MI New York bowlers fought, stitching in the dot balls, hitting back with wickets, we really had hope. Alas.. The comeback from 20 being needed off 24Washington needed 20 off 24 balls. The game seemed done. They were romping home. Not so easily when you have MINY at the other end though! Naveen-ul-Haq, on a mission after the previous game to rectify his death bowling, produced an absolute beauty of an over – picking the wicket of Obus Pienaar and conceding just two runs. Trent Boult did better in the next, giving away just one run. Suddenly, the equation was at 17 being needed off 12. Alas, it wasn’t to be as Mark Chapman killed the game with a couple of boundaries. Another day, another Monank specialHe continues his dream run: 62, 20, 93 and now a 20-ball 32, setting the tone in the powerplay to get MINY off to another solid start. Quinton de Kock found his groove as well, smashing a 34-ball 55, studded with seven fours and two sixes to lay the platform for a big total. Although Michael Bracewell produced a 24-ball 42, the final explosion to get us past 200 didn’t quite come from the others as MINY had to settle for 188/4 in their 20 overs. The Sunny Patel-styled fightHe began with the wicket of Andries Gous in the powerplay, but it his wicket of the big fish – Mitchell Owen – who was on a rampage to get 62 off just 26 balls, that brought us back in the game in the first place. His change-ups in pace along with a bunch of variations have been quite handy all season. Sadly, with cameos from Glenn Maxwell, Jack Edwards and Mark Chapman, the Washington Freedom got home in the final over. Let’s not get too disheartened, folks. We’re still in the first half of the league here. There’s enough positives for us to know that it is only a matter of time before the tide turns. And when it does, we’ll make sure it’s a tsunami! 

With figures of 4-0-37-2, including the wickets of Adries Gous and the dangerous Mitchell Owen, Sunny Patel has been one of the biggest positives in the MI New York bowling attack this season. Bowling Coach, Mitchell McClenaghan was equally in praise of the veteran bowler in his post-match press conference chat. Excerpts.. On the MINY bowlers’ performance so farWe’ve got experienced bowlers in our unit. I think tonight we were a little off, and I think we’ve been all through the tournament so far. The plans have been good but the execution has been lacking. Teams have been able to navigate around the big guys and we haven’t been able to support around them. Thoughts on the league so farIt's nice. Another challenge. I love the game, love sharing knowledge. It’s nice seeing the talent of the US players across all teams actually. It’s getting stronger every year. I have been enjoying the league. Bowling plans as the bowlers fought it out towards the end It is still in our minds how Texas brought the game back against us in the first fixture. You’ve got to keep reminding yourself as a bowling unit that if you can take it to the last over, you always have a chance. Sometimes you can panic with the ball and try and think that you have to get wickets earlier in the game than you actually need to. You can take it deeper and build pressure. I must commend our bowlers, they did that this evening. Unfortunately, we were just a little bit short. On Rushil Ugarkar having a tough start with the ball He's an exciting talent. He moves the ball at the top which is why he got the second over today. We missed our line, like we did against Finn Allen and now against Mitch Owen, they will make you pay. He’s a big man and hits it strong and hits the ball hard. I’m not going to come hard on the bloke. We will assess and pump him up. Even though Mark Chapman got them across the line in the last over, he (Rushil) showed some great skills. He just missed a couple of yorkers against him. Lot of positives. He was just against an absolute beast at the top of the innings today. On Sunny Patel’s superb spellSunny has been the surprise package of our side this year. He bowled really well in the warm-up matches for us. He probably missed his length a couple of times trying to search for wickets. Sometimes that happens. I think he’s bowled exceptionally throughout the tournament. He’s become a banker. We are missing Rashid (Khan). He has filled that hole superbly. We’re missing Nosh (Kenjige) as well. He’s filled that role really nicely. He’s a mainstay in this side. I really like how he’s been able to hold his lengths against some of the world’s best players. On the batting unit not having clicked so farIt’s another batter-friendly wicket. The outfield is so fast as well. Our batting is going to click. You look at our unit, we are getting 180s, and we haven’t really had Nicholas Pooran come off. You’ve got some world class players, when they hit form, they don’t stop. What I must commend from the Washington Freedom was that their fielding was exceptional. Get got a hand to a lot of balls and saved 10-15 runs in the field. Thoughts on having Pollard bowl the 20th over The plan tonight was to use our resources early. We had to use Boult and Naveen early to try and put pressure on them. Pollard’s over was really good and kept us in the fixture. Historically, if you look at Polly’s 20th overs which he’s bowled in the past, he has the knack of getting the ball to the keeper. Whatever he does, he gets good bounce, he is hard to hit. He can be difficult if you are chasing 10 runs in the over. He’s not a bad man to have a backup to bowl the 20th over.