It’s a happy MI New York camp, signing off from the Oakland Coliseum with a win. And what a win it was. The Head Coach, Mark Boucher, was at the post-match press conference, and he couldn’t be more proud of the way his boys turned this around. Excerpts.. Thoughts on the gameIt was our third close game in a row and it was quite good to win one. We should have won the first game and the second game was quite tight. Today was a good day for us to get on the board. Good game of cricket. There’s been some very tight games. Today the pitch played its part, it was a very good cricket wicket and it produced a fantastic game. On Monank Patel’s superb innings It doesn’t surprise me. Monank is a fantastic player and that is why he is playing for the USA as well. His first innings showed me that he knows how to score runs. He struggled upfront in the first game but he stuck it out. Today, he came in, the conditions were tough in the powerplay, especially in the second innings. He stuck to his plan as well and he really expressed himself after that. He played some fantastic cricket shots all around the park. When a guy like Heinrich Klaasen, who’s one of the top batters in the world, said it was an impressive innings, it says quite a bit. It doesn’t surprise me. A lot of the locals I’ve seen here are very talented cricketers. Sometimes their self-belief lets them down a bit. But that will come with a bit of time when you perform against top players. As this league grows a little older and the players mix with some of the best in the world, they’ll take a lot of confidence from that. On the team batting slowly through the powerplayIt was a plan. If you look at their powerplay, they were 32/2 and they got to 200. The trend of the tournament, especially in the second innings is that the wickets have been slightly up and down in the powerplay, but in the back ten it really starts to slide on and becomes difficult for bowlers. We knew we wanted to get off to a good start and limit the amount of wickets we lose in the powerplay. We felt the runs weren’t quite there but we were setting ourselves up for an onslaught at the back end. I was very happy with the start we got. We felt Brace (Michael Bracewell) had been batting really well and was the perfect guy to go in. He also struggled a bit but then towards the back end he really pulled it through. Reasons for not going hard at the startI think it is the pitch. Against the new ball it is a little up and down. It is difficult to line up a bowler. It is very much bowler friendly in the first six overs. At this venue, a lot of teams capitalize in the back end rather than lose too many wickets in the powerplay. If you look at games where teams have batted well, barring maybe the first game, you look at that and get the percentages in our favor as a batting unit and that is what happened today with both sides. On Nicholas Pooran batting lower down the order It is largely due to the pitch as well. We know the stats, we know how good he is. We just felt we’d rather give him an opportunity to come in towards the backend of the game when the bowlers are under pressure rather than him getting in too early and getting a ball that keeps low or hits the gloves. You’re trying to give your best players the best opportunity to put the opposition under pressure. That could change in Dallas. A lot of people wonder, Nicky P (Pooran) is one of the best batters in the world, why wouldn’t you want to give him more balls? But we just wanted to play him where he is best suited for our team. On Nosthush Kenjige’s injury status Nosh has been a big loss for us at the start of the tournament. He has gone for a scan recently and we are just waiting for those results to come in. Certainly, he is one we would love to get into the equation. He is a massive player. I haven’t really worked with him, but he is very keen to get out there as well. We haven’t replaced him and hopefully we can get some positive information from the doctors. Whether there were thoughts of subbing out BracewellWe know what Bracewell is like. He showed it towards the backend when he finished the game off. I wasn’t too concerned because of the way Monank was batting. At no stage did I think of retiring him and getting someone else in. He has played some fantastic knocks in the few games he has played for New Zealand as well. Sometimes it looks tough when one guy is batting like a dream and the other is struggling a bit. You just need one hit to get away. There’s got to be something really extreme to be swapping a player. On Naveen-ul-Haq having a tough game If you have a look at how they lined their attack up today, they also took it easy in the powerplay and wanted wickets at the end. We wanted to get our best, most-experienced bowlers bowling to them as well. He bowled in really tough overs today and took one for the team. He struggled with his execution a bit today but he is a fantastic bowler and someone had to go out there and bowl the tough overs. There’s still a lot of positives to take out of the way he has been bowling. That’s the tough thing about bowling. You look at him and Boulty (Trent Boult) to bowl the tough overs. It’s just the nature of T20 cricket. You come off on certain nights and on some nights you don’t. Unfortunately he didn’t come off. But there is a lot of support from the dressing room.

What. A. Feeling. This was exactly what we needed. After ending up on the wrong side of a couple of thrillers in the 2025 Cognizant MLC, we’ve managed to bury the ghosts, and how. At one point the asking rate really seemed to have gone beyond us, but no, with vintage Polly out in the middle, you never ever give up. Why fear when Polly is here!49 runs were needed off 22 balls when Kieron Pollard walked out. Michael Bracewell couldn’t quite get going until that point, battling on 26 off 29 balls. Polly wasted no time. The first ball went down the ground for four. The ball after went racing through mid-wicket. The intent was signaled. The mood was set. And suddenly, Bracewell found his timing too, launching three sixes in Kyle Mayers’ 18th over. 23 were now needed off 12. After our mishaps in the last two games, we never were really comfortable. Obed McCoy ran in. Ball 1: McCoy to Pollard - FOURBall 2: McCoy to Pollard – FOURBall 3: McCoy to Pollard – 1 runBall 4: McCoy to Bracewell – SIXBall 5: McCoy to Bracewell – 1 run (And he gets his Fifty as well)Ball 6: McCoy to Pollard – wideBall 6: McCoy to Pollard – SIX26 off 10. Kieron Pollard, seals the deal with an over to spare. Just. Polly. Things. Monank in record-breaking mode A target of 201 demands a solid start. Monank Patel gave us just that, and some more. “Really happy with the way we played, we fought till the end. In the second innings, when you try to hit too many shots, it is tough. Wanted to spend time, get set and then play some shots. When there was some extra pace, just wanted to use my pace,” he said in the presentation ceremony. So, what did he do? 93 runs | 50 balls | 8 fours | 7 sixes. He never let the run-rate dip. He never let the momentum go away. He may have missed out on a well-deserved century, but this knock made sure he now holds the record for the highest score by a USA player in the MLC. MINY start superbly with the ball, but the Orcas finish strongAt the 12-over stage, the Seattle Orcas were on 80/2. All our bowlers had done superbly to keep the scoring in check. But Kyle Mayers, along with Heinrich Klaasen and Shimron Hetmyer, cut loose in the death overs, notching up 120 in the last eight overs, and lifting their team to 200. Phew, we really needed this. MI New York are off and running. The Oakland leg has produced some real thrillers and we’ve received great support too. It’s the perfect way for us to sign off as we head over to Dallas.

It’s all about getting the ball rolling. Although MI New York don’t have the results to show for, the brand of cricket we’ve played has been really entertaining. We’ve received some tremendous support in Oakland over the last week, and it’d be lovely to sign off from this leg with a smile on our fans’ faces (read two points). The Seattle Orcas are in similar waters with nothing to show for in their two games. David Warner vs Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer vs Naveen-ul-Haq, Kieron Pollard vs Obed McCoy, Heinrich Klaasen vs Nicholas Pooran, oh, this promises to be a mouth-watering feast. What: MI New York vs Seattle Orcas When: June 18, 2025 | 18:00 local time (June 19, 06:30 IST)Where: Oakland Coliseum, CA What to expect: Although the pitches have slowed down compared to what they were in the first few games and the average scores have gone down a bit, you can never take anything for granted with the kind of batting depth these two teams possess.