“The guys in the dressing room are gutted, which tells you how much they care”: Mark Boucher
By MI New York Media
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 player
As 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.
LATEST
“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
