MI NEW YORK STORM INTO THE MLC 2023 FINAL
By Vineet Anantharaman
Try saving some of those nails. Try saving your vocal chords. Try not running around waving the Blue and Gold. We. Have. Booked. Our. Date. With. History.
Oh this was a comeback for the ages. A bounce-back from a point where our backs were well and truly against the wall. And it’s always special pulling off these heists against the Super Kings, even more so when the stakes are this huge and the reward is a spot in the maiden MLC Finale.
With Trent Boult swinging it into our kitty with more ‘Four’ce and with each of our batters just churning out short, quick, sweet cameo after cameo, we’ve put in that complete team performance to carry us through. This is what team sport is all about. This is what stepping up in the play-offs is all about. This what the MI Family is all about.
Three games, three four-fers, the genius that is Trent Boult
A four-wicket haul in a T20 is rare. To do it twice is mastery. To do it in three successive games on a stage as big as this is pure genius. That’s Trent Boult for you.
- du Plessis c Brevis b Boult 6(9) – undone by the outswing of the new ball, getting a leading-edge to point
- Santner c Pooran b Boult 6(3) – a back of a length delivery that seamed away now, nicking off to the keeper
- Conway c Brevis b Boult 38(35) – his customary strikes at the death, getting rid of the set batter with a short ball
- Savage b Boult 6(2) – yep, Boult was savage. Undone with a top knuckle ball
The constantly improving Shayan Jahangir
If ever there was an award to be given out for the most-improved USA player through the MLC, Shayan’s winning it hands down. In the league stage game against the Texas Super Kings, he’d tried to anchor through the innings but fell at the wrong stage. But he’s more than made up for it here in the qualifier. An 18-ball 36 at the top of the innings, when the pitch wasn’t at its best and the other batters in Slade van Staden and even Nicky P found the going tough.
The Tim David treatment to a chase
Why worry when Tim’s out there? The asking rate touched nearly 11 at one point. Dewald Brevis was on 16 off 22. Tim on 7 off 12. Safe to say they were looking scratchy and the momentum was nowhere to be found. But come the time-out, some button somewhere clicked. Some switch went on. With sheer muscle behind this hit, Tim smoked Mitch Santner down the ground for a six, and then followed it up with three more off four deliveries against Mohammad Mohsin to resurrect MI NY’s chase.
Easy Wiese
34 runs | 24 balls. While Brevis was doing it in boundaries from the other end, with Tim’s sweet form rubbing off on him, David Wiese was more than happy to do it in twos. His experience of being around and his cool head were well and truly on display, as he refused to panic, brought the equation down to a-run-a-ball in the last two overs, and made full use of a dropped chance to smash a half-tracker over cow corner to kill the game. It was only fair that DB, who’d hung it out through the tough period got to apply the finishing touches, and stamp our arrival into the grand finale.
It's a Sunday in the USA, an early Monday morning if you happen to be in India, but you better save the date. MI New York vs Seattle Orcas for the maiden MLC title. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be historic. The tickets have already been sold out. You’ve done superbly to break the odd-match jinx. Let’s get all the Blue we can, and go for Gold!
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“It’s a tough pill to swallow”
It’s never easy knowing 266 wasn’t enough on the day. A record 29 sixes were hit by MI New York – the most ever in a T20 innings. On nights like these when lightning strikes twice, you don’t fight the powers. You just accept it wasn’t out night.“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” said Mark Boucher at the post-match press conference. “I think this ground is very small. In the beginning stages of the tournament, the wickets weren’t as good as they are now. It made bowling extremely tough. The dew factor at the backend of the game made bowling extremely tough for the bowlers and the fielders. But in saying that, we had our chances. If we had taken those chances, we could have built a bit of pressure. We knew when we scored our total, on a pitch that is good and small boundaries, if there was one team that could chase this down, it was these guys.”MI New York’s MLC 2026 campaign might have come to an end, but it was eventful and certainly memorable. We gained momentum and peaked at the right time, with all parts of the puzzle seemingly falling in place. “The one area where we’ve struggled throughout the tournament has been our batting. We haven’t got any flow in our batting in the tournament. Coming into the game today, even though we lost the last game, I thought there was something going there. Nicky’s (Pooran) knock was fantastic. Quinny (de Kock) got us off to a good start as well. Polly coming in. We put on a really good score and our batters did really well. In the middle stages of the tournament, our bowlers really kept us in the tournament,” he said. Whether it was Kieron Pollard pulling out matches from the dead, something he’s done for the Blue and Gold for over 17 years now, or whether it was Tajinder Dhillon’s cameos, or Rushil Ugarkar’s large-hearted bowling, Quinton de Kock’s typically Quinny-like starts, or a record-breaking final flourish, there certainly has been enough for us to celebrate. Let’s give it some time. When the disappointment withers, what will remain is pride, the pride we have in this side. This is MI city, this is MI team, we are MI New York. 17 Jul, 2026Celebrating a 106(33), that is enough on most days…
…Sadly, this wasn’t one of those. But when the dust settles and the disappointment of seeing a massive total being overhauled dies down, we’ll the pride in this MONSTER NICHOLAS POORAN knock. He loves these knockout games in the MLC, doesn’t he! Against the Washington Freedom in the Eliminator, he wasted no time settling in. The first ball was a single. Ball 2: SIXBall 3: SIXBall 4: SIXBall 5: FOURThis was followed by another 6, 4, 0, 6, 6, 6 to bring up his fifty off just 14 balls. None of them were mishits in any sense. Reading the bowling to perfection, he was happy to step out and go over long-off, pull away the short stuff, tonk them down the ground, cut them through point. Just peak, beast mode. He wasn’t backing down. Against Nikhil Chaudhary’s off-spin, he kept the fifth gear going. 6, 4, 1, 0, 4, 6, 4, 6 across two overs, and he had the fastest MLC century, off just 31 balls. He fell immediately after. All this inside the 12th over. Sheer madness was on display. Again, it might get forgotten given what happened in the second innings and how Washington chased down a mammoth total, but it was a knock for the ages nevertheless. Nicky P has added another feather that sits alongside his iconic 137* from 2023!16 Jul, 2026The Eliminator report: Crazy game, but ends in heartbreak :(
266 runs chased down. 51 sixes hit in the game. It’s probably a once in a lifetime moment, and the partnership of 241 runs in just 89 balls between Steven Smith and Andries Gous was again one of those, seen now, might never be seen again moments. Alas, it came against us in the Eliminator. A crazy game, but on the wrong side of the result.. Nicholas Pooran: 106 (33)“It wasn’t meant to be,” our skipper said at the post-match presentation. But his knock deserves all the appreciation. Five fours, 13 sixes, and a century off just 31 balls. It was peak Nicky P. Beast Nicky P. He was just unstoppable, smashing everything around for fun. Imagine a 24-ball 51 by Quinton de Kock felt like second fiddle! And then Polly goes wild!Pooran came, smashed, and was done by the 12th over. Kieron Pollard took it upon himself to carry the baton forward. With a 25-ball 64, he kept the shots coming, the sixes flowing, and ensured MINY finished strong. The final 266/9 came via Trent Boult and his 10-ball 22. That Smith-Gous stand On most days, a target of 267 is daunting enough. But lightning struck twice, first in the form of Pooran’s brilliant century, and then with Gous’ 51-ball 132 and Smith’s 48-ball 110. They rode their luck, but it just felt written in the stars. Ruing the missed chances 9.4: Smith gets a life 10.1: Smith gets put down again 10.6: Now Gous is dropped11.5: Both the bowler and the keeper miss a run-out chance In 13 balls, with four chances gone down, the signs were clear. It simply wasn’t our day. The batters then switched gears and went on a rampage, with 29 runs coming off the 13th over, 21 off the 14th and 31 off the 15th, virtually killing the game. This is where it ends. 2026 wasn’t to be. It’s a tough one to swallow. But once the dust settles, we’ll look back at how heartwarming this season has been with new heroes stepping up, older ones turning back the clock, and wins pulled off from nowhere. 15 Jul, 2026
