MINYvSO report: Yes, Yesss, YESSSSS!!! Pollard, Shepherd pluck W out of nowhere
By MI New York Media
Oh, this is special. This is really special. A match that looked dead and gone. At 137/1 in the 15th over with both Tim Seifert (88) and Matthew Breetzke (44) settled and needing just 43 in the last five, it really looked like a game that was beyond MI New York’s reach. NOT WHEN YOU’VE GOT A CERTAIN KIERON POLLARD IN THE SIDE!
Over #16: Pollard creates a flutter, getting Breetzke to chop one onto his stumps
Over #17: Romario Shepherd comes in and does what he’s been doing all season – stringing in the dot balls in crunch times. Gives away just two runs
Over #18: Rushil Ugarkar gets the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer, produces another chance to get Seifert as well, but the catch doesn’t stick
Over #19: Romario returns, bettering it with two wickets now, including that of the set Seifert, giving away JUST THREE RUNS
Over #20: 21 now needed off the final over, and trust Polly to keep it quiet with his variations, and go absolutely wild in the celebrations!!!
Polly, this time with the bat
At 51/4 and subsequently 73/5, MINY were in a spot of bother. But Pollard, just didn’t let the scoring rate slow down, tonking a flat six off the third ball he faced. Mixing aggression with caution and the intent to bat through the innings, he finished with a vital 33-ball 54, carrying MINY to a big score. At the other end…
…Tajinder Dhillon kept going berserk
There was nothing cautious about this knock. He was the difference in the end. He just kept swinging for the hills and kept finding them, bringing up a 22-ball fifty in the process, and then doing better to end with a 27-ball 66.
Again, what a game. What a feeling. This killer punch just came out of nowhere, and these two points have once again put us back in the top two on the points table. Let’s leave the qualification scenarios for later and just bask in this feeling of pure joy!
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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!13 Jul, 2026Match 10 | MINYvWF preview: Q done, now onto MISSION TOP-2
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! 12 Jul, 2026
