Match 5 | MINYvSO: Let’s go get pole

Not the way we’d have wanted to end the league stage, but we end up where we did last year: MI New York will be playing the Eliminator. And surely we don’t need reminding of what happened after that in 2025!O Captain, MI Captain! Pooran 86 leads the wayIt was an evening dominated by the bat on another flat track at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, and it was skipper, Nicholas Pooran’s turn to come to the party. Almost single-handedly with a 44-ball 86, studded with four fours and eight sixes, he laid the platform for MI New York to get to a big total. Sadly, it wasn’t the finish we were after at the end, losing five wickets for 37 runs in the last five overs, but 187/8 was a pretty formidable score.Kunwarjeet, Shakib chip in with cameos In the XI in place of Corey Anderson, Kunwarjeet Singh played a vital 20-ball 26 cameo, giving Pooran good support after two early wickets in a 90-run stand for the third wicket. And Shakib Al Hasan’s 13-ball 18 stood out amidst the lower-order collapse, making sure MINY got their 187.Boulty impressive, but Gous, Rachin go big The wind picked up in the second innings, allowing the batters to target the smaller boundary, and Andries Gous (96 off 54) and Rachin Ravindra (60 off 30) did just that to seal the deal for Washinton. But Trent Boult was impressive once again, getting the dangerous Steve Smith early and coming back at the death to bowl a four-run 17th over to create a slight flutter in their chase. Alas, Glenn Maxwell finished it off with back-to-back sixes in the 18th..Right then, the Q was already ours. It’s now time for the Big E. This is our territory. As we move to San Francisco for the final leg, we’re all set to paint the town in our Blue and Gold!

Thanks to that epic win-from-the-jaws-of-defeat last evening, we have secured the Q against our name. That’s right, MI New York have made it to the Playoffs!!! Yeah, let’s announce our arrival!But the job’s not done. With one last league game to go, we have an opportunity to finish in the top two, which would give us an additional chance in the playoffs. So here’s the deal: MINY need to win, and win big enough to go past LAKR on the NRR. We’ve been here before, and we’ve done this before. Okay, it’s the Washington Freedom who are up next, a team that has also made it to the playoffs, and are in a similar boat as ours, where they need a win and a bigger one at that too in order to have a top-two finish chance. This is the team we began our MLC 2026 campaign against in what was a high-scoring thriller. As we sign off from Dallas, it’s our chance to end on the right side of the result this time around.  What: MI New York vs Washington Freedom When: July 12, 2026 | 3:30pm local time (July 13, 2:00am IST)Where: Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas What to expect: Two satisfied teams, but equally desperate for a win to have an extra bite at the cherry in the playoffs. In what should be another belter of a surface, this is where we start our march towards the peak. Mission Top-2, here we come! 

A special knock from a special player, and a heartfelt message, as Tajinder Dhillon, after receiving the Player of the Match award for his brilliant 27-ball 66 that carried MI New York to strong total of 179 after the early collapse, dedicated his Player of the Match award to his brother, his first cricket coach, who passed away in January this year. “First of all, I would like to thank the team management and thank God for giving me this opportunity. And yeah, the chat last night with Polly, I think it worked. He gave me advice on what I need to do on this particular surface and in this tournament. So I would like to say thank you to Polly (Kieron Pollard), and to Sunny Bhai as well, Sunny Patel,” Dhillon said in the post-match interview. He walked in with the team in a spot of bother at 73/5 in the 12th over, and took on the bowling immediately along with Kieron Pollard for company as the duo reversed the pressure with an 80-run stand. “We know as professionals, that as a number six or seven, you have to finish games,” he said at the post-match press conference. “If Polly is there, there is no pressure on me.”“I was a part of Mumbai Indians in 2018. I have played in the Ranji Trophy as well and was a part of Kings XI Punjab as well back in India. That helps because I have played with these big guys and to mix with them. Polly was there at Mumbai Indians and he knows me very well. This helps me.”“I would like to dedicate this Man of the Match to my brother, who passed away in January. He was my first coach, Mr. Gurjit, so I would like to dedicate this award to him."