22 Jul, 2024

“On Wednesday, you will now see MI New York, the Defending Champions”: Nicky Pooran

By MI New York Media
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From the brink of elimination to storming into the playoffs, MI New York are reliving 2023 in their MLC 2024 journey. And the star from their must-win clash against the LA Knight Riders on Sunday (July 21), Nicholas Pooran, spoke to the media in the post-match press conference, was pumped up after playing an innings that he admits was not his usual style. Excerpts.. 

On the pitch and conditions

I think LAKR bowled well to me. The ball was seaming around for the pacers. They hit that 4-5 meter length. It was one of those days when it wasn’t about scoring at a strike rate of 200. We kept losing wickets at the wrong time. Just one of those days where I kept the ego aside and did what the team needed me to do, just be there. 

On deciding to bat through the innings 

I have been around a while now. I have played a lot of T20 cricket and made mistakes. I have been in the same situation and done the opposite. Happy to learn. For me it is all about winning cricket games. A few nights ago, in a similar situation, I played a reverse sweep, and got out. I didn’t want to make the same mistake again. It is about understanding that sometimes it is better to bat for your team than for yourself. It is good that I can strike at 150, 200, 250 sometimes. At the end of the day, what is most important is winning cricket games. And if it means batting till the end, so be it. It is my job and I have to do it. 

Thoughts on debutant Rushil Ugarkar’s bowling

Polly mentioned in the beginning of the tournament, that if we wanted to go all the way, everyone would have to contribute. Happy that he got the opportunity today and I was impressed that he was ready for it. Giving him the new ball as well, against Sunil (Narine) and (Jason) Roy. He was a bit nervous, but he felt comfortable. It is all about being ready for the opportunity. He is a young guy and that is the beauty about franchise cricket, giving local players the opportunity to show their ability and talent. Really nice for him to open the bowling with Trent Boult as well and contribute for us. 

Whether the campaign seems similar to 2023

In T20 cricket it is really important to get the right momentum at the right time. Last year is a perfect example, we had to work really hard to get to the final. It is now a different tournament for us. You are no longer going to see us as the team that struggled to get to the playoffs on Wednesday. You are going to see MI New York, the defending Champions. You’re going to see match-winners. You will see individuals putting their hands up and winning the game for their team. It is really good. Winning and losing is contagious. Hopefully we can get some momentum from this game and go on to win the cup this year as well. 

On the team talk after losses

We keep speaking about putting your hands up and everyone contributing. Cricket is just a game, you are allowed to make mistakes. But as a group, if we want to move forward, we need to understand that we cannot keep making the same mistakes. We need to understand what is happening in the game. When guys make silly mistakes, it hurts. Obviously it is a game and so you want to put it away. When you want to win, emotions come out. Some things this season was disappointing. Guys hopefully can get the opportunity to learn and get better with themselves. Whatever happens on the park, stays on the park, and we can laugh about it now and go about with our game. 

Whether Pollard’s wicket-celebration was a message to Andre Russell

No message. That celebration says it all about wanting to win this game and win moments. He got Russell out last year as well. We know how dangerous Dre (Russell) is specially in the last over in a T20 game. Polly took the responsibility to bowl the last over in the game and kept them 20 runs show. Trying to chase 150 in 18.2 overs on that wicket would have been challenging. That’s the small margins you want to win. He won that and sent the right message. We lost just one wicket in the first four overs. We had a solid powerplay and built from there. 

On the approach for the playoffs

It just feels like last year all over again. To win that game, we need to be at our best. We need to win the match-ups, win the moments, make less mistakes, and the results will take care of itself once we control the processes. 

On the rivalry against Texas Super Kings

Everyone knows how big that rivalry it is. In America as well, the fans come in large numbers to watch that game. Bravo and Polly have that friendship as well, on who can win more titles or games. Hopefully on Wednesday, we can bring out the best in Polly. 

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30 Jun, 2025

Pooran’s promotion? Polly’s matchup? MINY’s strategy for Florida? Boucher breaks it down

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. 
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30 Jun, 2025

TSKvMINY report: “An MI franchise is never out of a tournament, teams know that” – Nicky P

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."

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