2023 in USA cricket history was an inflexion point. For their skipper, it was an inflexion point and a half. He’d witnessed a masterclass from close quarters: Nicholas Pooran’s 137*. “It was a dream innings. He single-handedly won us the title. Not just in the final but he scored runs in all every game in that 2023 season. He won us almost every game with the bat that season. Lifting the trophy in the first year will always be history,” said Monank Patel in an exclusive chat with minycricket.com. The Major Cricket League has touched down. MI New York had bagged Monank in the Draft, and he was watching history being made from the sidelines. “The first season of the MLC was obviously a new experience for everyone, playing with and against international players,” he said. “That first year helped all of us grow our skills and our game. It’s because of that first year of the MLC that this year we are able to use that experience and do the basics right. We have played in front of a lot of crowds in international games, but the MLC was a new experience and the first season definitely helped all us local players.”The seed was sown. The first shoots were seen in 2024 at the T20 World Cup. Unfancied, underdogs USA, shocked the cricketing world with their mature brand of cricket, holding their nerve in a thrilling super over win over Pakistan. But Monank had seen it coming. “Before coming into the 2024 T20 World Cup, we performed really well against Bangladesh. We had good momentum and confidence after beating a Test playing country. We had that hunger to do well in that World Cup. We were playing in our home ground against good quality teams and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity playing in front of crowds. It gave us a lot of motivation. The way we played against Pakistan got us into the Super 8s, and yeah, even in the 50-over tournament, we are at currently at the top of the table (Cricket World Cup League 2 2024/27). The growth of cricket has been tremendous,” he said. Come 2025, Monank’s batting is right up there. He had one fifty across 2023 and 2024 combined. He already has three in 2025. 62 (44), 20 (14), 93 (50), 32 (20), 60 (33), 20 (14), he’s not just holding his own, he’s setting the benchmark. For a player who’d admitted to needing a bit of time to get his innings started earlier, his strike-rate of 161 is testament to his growth. The first set of fruits are ripe and ready for picking in the form of Magnificent Monank.                 

It wasn’t our night. Nothing really went our way right from the start. This Dallas leg has been a tough one, but we are still in with a solid chance of making it to the playoffs. Let’s quickly hop over to Florida and make it our fortress! A superb Faf tonGeorge Linde, on his MINY debut, impressed immediately, trapping Smit Patel LBW in his first over. But TSK skipper, Faf du Plessis, went on a rampage from the other end. A calculated one at that too. With five fours and nine sixes, he batted through the innings, with the rest of the batters playing useful cameos around him. Our rejigged batting order doesn’t clickWith a daunting target of 224 ahead, captain Nicholas Pooran promoted himself to open the batting, but it didn’t quite work, with him as well as Monank Patel, who moved down to number three in the process, falling for single digit scores. Quinton de Kock tried to counter-attack from the other end, but was a victim of Akeal Hosein’s three-wicket spell for a 25-ball 35. Polly to the rescue, again!It was a lone effort, standing amidst the collapse and trying to get us close. Five sixes, five fours and a 39-ball 70, and it kept the required run-rate within some control too, but alas, it was a bridge too far. So three teams have qualified for the playoffs. One spot remains. We have a two day break, followed by three games in four days. A new venue is bound to bring us new luck. We are still in with a very strong chance of making it to the top four. As Pooran said in the post-match presentation, “It's never over. Tournaments like this, T20 cricket is all about momentum and individual performances as well. We're going to Miami to oversee different conditions as well. So we're looking forward to seeing what happens there. We're very optimistic. MI Franchise has never been out of a tournament, and all the teams know that. So we do know when, once we get one win. I think it changed for us, it's been difficult for us, and we have accepted that."

Another game with a bunch of positives for us to take out, but sadly, another game where the result didn’t go our way. Head Coach, Mark Boucher, was at the post-match press conference, throwing light on the change in the batting order, what makes Kieron Pollard special, the bowling strategy and a lot more. Excerpts..Strategy behind sending Pooran to open the battingI don’t like breaking up successful partnerships. Monank (Patel) and Quinny (de Kock) have been a very successful partnership for us in the past. It is something they came to me with knowing Akeal Hosein as well, saying he was really effective in the powerplay. He wanted to go upfront and face him. He’s the guy in form, coming off a hundred and is the captain, he wanted to go out there and set the tone from ball one. It was a decision that didn’t come off in hindsight, but it was a brave decision he wanted to take. We needed to get off to a very good start. The score they got was above par on the pitch. We said at the halfway stage that if we are to get off to a good start, Nicky P has got to be the matchup against Akeal. They didn’t bowl him, which also wasn’t a bad thing for us because we felt we could capitalize in the middle overs and send some big-hitters to take him on. I thought he bowled really well and negated any plan or tactic we had in place. Plans going into the Florida legThe strategy would be to try and win a game. We’ve got some good players in good form. We have struggled in our bowling department and leaking runs in a big way. Today I thought they scored way too many runs in the powerplay. That was just us bowling a touch too full and not reading the conditions well. We pulled it back nicely after that but then they got away again at the back end to score 80 runs in the last five overs that really blew us away. Going to Fort Lauderdale, we’ll look at the conditions there. We have a couple of spinning options. The spinning options haven’t worked at any of the grounds. We have a squad that is packed with spin. Hopefully the conditions suit us better from that perspective and we can put a bit more pressure on batting teams when the ball starts turning because we have got that in our armory. On Pollard being used up the orderThere’s quite a bit of our batters who are in form. The tendency would have been to hold him back today but once again he showed he can go and bat at any stage of the game. We all know that Polly likes to have a look at a couple of balls and he did that today and showed that even if was far-fetched for us to win the game, it always looked like there was something special coming from his side. His experience is key for us. We just need to get our combinations right in the bowling side. Having Polly being able to bat in any position is good for us. The fact that he is in form is a bonus. The guys in the dressing room are down because we’ve lost a couple of tough games. I won’t say we were blown away today but it would be disappointing in that change room. This is when you need a couple of characters to stand up and Polly is certainly one of those guys. He has been in situations like this before and knows how to pull it out and what to say to youngsters to keep their chins up. There is a lot of hard work that goes into these competitions for teams and squads, so it is never nice when things aren’t going your way. We won’t throw in the towel. In true MI standard, we’ll see what we can do in the next two games. We just have to try and sneak into the playoffs somehow. Anything can happen in a playoff game. Teams know that MI teams have done it before, just snuck in and played well. But we just have to win the next game. On Pollard’s matchup against spin We’ve got other batters batting well as well. Most management teams try to play their best players in certain situations. Usually people are used to seeing him go in a bit later. But knew there were spin options that Texas had and we felt there was a matchup for Polly. He showed what he can do in one over. That’s the reason we sent him up. We’ve also got quality players coming in before him. The game of T20 cricket isn’t about batting positions anymore, it is about entry points. Certainly if we feel that Polly is going to have an impact in the game earlier rather than later, we would send him in because we know what he can do.On Rushil Ugarkar bowling the final over He's young and he wants to be put into tough situations, that’s a feather in his cap straightaway. Often it can be a tough place to be when two in-form batters are batting in the last over of a T20 innings. He wanted the ball. I thought he bowled fantastically well. He’ll probably look back and think he shouldn’t have gone full and should have bowled into the wicket. The one shot that Donovan Ferreira played off him was a very good shot. He’ll learn from that. He’s got a good character. He’s gained places. He needs to stay patience. He’s got to learn a lot. You can sit and talk to a youngster but just being out there, in the process is where you learn the most. He’ll take a lot from the experience tonight.