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."

A simple seven-letter word that encapsulates everything MI New York need to do right now: BELIEVE. Believe that we will turn this around. Believe in the numerous positives we’ve had so far. Believe in the fact that all is takes is one match to get on a winning roll. And believe that the Blue and Gold army would play 12th man duties to perfection to power the team through. Up next are the team against whom we started this season in Oakland. It was a game that was in our kitty before a flurry of wickets, including a couple of run-outs, saw the Super Kings bag the two points. We have our task cut out in front of us. The memories are fresh enough for us to avenge this. A win would bring us in the top four. What: Texas Super Kings vs MI New YorkWhen: June 29 | 19:00 local time (June 30, 5:30 IST)Where: Grand Prairie Stadium, DallasWhat to expect: This has been a chasing ground, with seven out of the 11 matches being won by the team batting second. It’s our last game at this venue in the league stage before we move to Florida. Let’s leave on a happy note!

It’s a tough loss to take. MI New York did most things right for a large chunk of the game, and thus losing it off the last ball is sure to hurt. But Head Coach, Mark Boucher, saw the positives to take out of this one, which would serve the team well in the games to come. Excerpts.. On Rusil Ugarkar’s solid comeback He came back very nicely after the first game where he took a bit of tap in the first over. He came back under pressure. I don’t think the second over he bowled in that game was bad. We had some conversations to see where he was at. He bowled well in the training sessions as well. Very happy for him that he was able to land it in the area he wanted to land it tonight. He dried the runs out. We’ve seen in this tournament that it can be a bit of a run-fest if the wicket is good, so the bowler is always going to be under the pump. Very happy with the way he performed especially after the first game. Whether there could be a strategy to go ahead with only seamers Yes, fast bowlers are doing well but are also taking a bit of a pasting. You look at Sunny Patel, he’s done really well for us and he is a leg-spinner but tonight wasn’t his night. It’s about balancing your team out. If you are not bowling 140ks, change of pace is important on these pitches. Execution is really under the microscope when it comes to these smaller grounds. We didn’t execute as well as we wanted to. Positives to take from this loss Difficult to take positives out of today because it’s a loss. But there are two guys who will take a huge positive for the rest of the tournament. Nicky (Pooran) first of all, his hundred, welcome back to form. It will stand him in good stead going forward. With Tajinder, he hasn’t been given that opportunity in this tournament so far. Our top order has been doing the job. I think he’s only had one or two knocks where he’s spent a bit of time. He’s always been floating in our order. We backed him today. There was a possibility for us to go with an extra bowler, but we stuck with him, which I’m very happy we did. He repaid us with one of the better T20 innings we’ve seen. Very happy for him. He’ll take a lot of confidence from this not only for this tournament but also going forward in his career. Our batting was strong today. The partnership with Nicky was very entertaining to a point where he was taking over. It’s always good to see one of the local guys taking the opportunity. I said it at the start of the tournament as well, the local guys coming in just need a bit of self-belief. That tends to happen in season two, three and four where you get used to mixing with the top players in the world. You look at Monank (Patel) and now Taji, two of the local batters putting their hands up. On Tajinder Singh’s growth as a playerAs a coach you can sit and have a chat with a player. But the best place to learn is out there in the middle with a guy with the experience like Nicky Pooran. Learning from his calmness and composure at the crease, learning when he needed to pull trigger. Those are priceless lessons you learn in cricket. A lot of these players will take benefit from that and become leaders in the USA team. Well done to Nicky for guiding him. On the local USA players doing well When I first came here and watched him play in a camp we had, between him and Monank, they were hitting the ball sweetly. We’ve got some other great players in our side too but those two were showing some good form. It’s tough to select a few and leave a few guys out but we ran with those two and they fitted in the dynamics of our structure. Taji didn’t have a chance to bat until this game and we chose to stick with him. I told him he would get the opportunity some time and he took it hands down. He stuck to his guns. He has been working hard off the field.  We’ve had some really good batting meetings as well. He’s the one guy I can see that’s listening. The way he went out and played today shows the things he’s learnt from the batting unit as a whole. He is imparting knowledge to the local players as well. It’s one thing hearing something but going out there and putting it to practice is all him. He needs to take full credit for how he played today. On the importance of winning the MLC in the dressing room You only have to walk into our dressing room to understand how disappointed the guys are. The guys are gutted which tells me they really care. The importance of this league is massive. It’s going to get bigger and bigger as it grows. The local players are going to get better and start competing. It’s not long before you see a couple of USA players playing in the IPL. There’s a talent pool that’s coming through which is fantastic for the league. The format we are playing is full of action and the American crowds love action-packed events. We need to give it a little more time. The players are certainly coming to the party. We’ve had some fantastic games of cricket, last night’s game, tonight’s game. It’s good for American cricket that you have these times of games. For MI New York, we’d just like to be on the winning side of one of them pretty soon.