The 2023 Major League Cricket final was a day/night 20-over

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

match played on July 30, 2023, at

Grand Prairie Stadium Grand Prairie Stadium (formerly QuikTrip Park and AirHogs Stadium) is a cricket ground and former ballpark in Grand Prairie, Texas. Opened in May 2008, it served as the home stadium of the Texas AirHogs of the American Association of Profession ...

Grand Prairie, Texas Grand Prairie is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Dallas County, Texas, Dallas, Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant, and Ellis County, Texas, Ellis counties with a small part extending into Johnson County, Texas , Johnson county. It ...

between the

Seattle Orcas The Seattle Orcas are an American professional Twenty20 cricket team based in the Seattle metropolitan area that competes in Major League Cricket (MLC). The team's planned home ground is in Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington. The franchise ...

and the

MI New York MI New York is an American professional Twenty20 cricket team based in New York City that competes in Major League Cricket (MLC). The team was established in June 2023 as one of six inaugural teams. The team's planned home ground is in Marine Par ...

to determine the winner of the inaugural season of

Major League Cricket Major League Cricket (MLC) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in the United States organized by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and sanctioned by USA Cricket. Founded in 2023, the league operates as a single entity consisting of ...

. The MI New York won the match and the title by defeating the Seattle Orcas by 6 wickets. MI New York player,

Nicholas Pooran Nicholas Pooran (; born 2 October 1995) was a Trinidadian cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team in limited overs formats till 2024 and served as the team's captain. He also competes domestically for Trinidad and Tobago national c ...

, was named

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

for his 55-ball 137 *.

Background

On June 13, 2023, the schedule for the 2023 season of Major League Cricket was released. 2 venues,

and

Church Street Park Church Street Park is a cricket ground in Morrisville, North Carolina, United States. In September 2018, it hosted the matches in the Northern sub-region group of the 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier tournament. In May 2019, the In ...

Morrisville, North Carolina Morrisville is a town located primarily in Wake County, North Carolina, United States (a small portion extends into neighboring Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County). According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the populatio ...

were scheduled to host the games. The play-off schedule was announced on the same day, with Grand Prairie due to host all play-off matches. The final was played between Seattle and New York on July 30, with the latter winning the title by 7 wickets.

Road to the final

Group stage

In the start to their inaugural campaign, the Orcas went top of the table by recording a 5-wicket win over the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom may refer to: * Washington Freedom (cricket) * Washington Freedom (soccer) {{dab ...

, a 35-run win over the

San Francisco Unicorns The San Francisco Unicorns are an American professional Twenty20 cricket team based in the San Francisco Bay Area that competes in Major League Cricket (MLC). The team's planned home ground is in the Oakland Coliseum. In 2023, it was announced ...

, and an 8-wicket win over the

Texas Super Kings The Texas Super Kings are an American professional Twenty20 cricket team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex that competes in Major League Cricket (MLC). The team's home ground is Grand Prairie Stadium. The stadium has a capacity of 7,2 ...

. The Orcas' winning streak was snapped, however, during a 2-wicket defeat to the

Los Angeles Knight Riders The Los Angeles Knight Riders are an American professional Twenty20 cricket team based in the Greater Los Angeles area that competes in Major League Cricket (MLC). The team's planned home ground is in Great Park in Irvine, California. The f ...

. A 2-wicket win over

assured the Orcas' a first-place finish going into the finals nevertheless. In contrast, New York began their campaign with a 22-run defeat to San Francisco. This was followed by a 105-run win over Los Angeles in their second game, a 17-run loss to Texas in their third, and a 8-wicket win over Washington in their fourth. In their final group stage game, they lost to table-toppers Seattle by 2 wickets. Despite the loss, they nevertheless still qualified for the play-offs.

Playoffs

The playoffs were played in a similar fashion to the

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (BBL), also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Australia. Established in 2011 by Cricket Australia, the Big Bash League replaced the previous competitio ...

, with Seattle defeating Texas by 9 wickets in the Qualifier and New York recording back-to-back victories against Washington and Texas in the Eliminator and Challenger matches, respectively, to go to the finals. ---- ----

Match

Match officials

* On-field umpires:

Wayne Knights Wayne Roger Knights (born 25 August 1970) is a New Zealand cricket umpire. Along with Tim Parlane, Knights umpired the final of the 2015–16 Ford Trophy, in January 2016. He was added to the ICC International Panel of Umpires in June 2016. He ...

(NZ) and Paul Wilson (AUS) *

Third umpire The third umpire (or TV Umpire) is an off- field umpire used in some cricket matches, particularly international matches. Their role is to make the final decision in questions referred to them by the two on-field umpires or the players. The ...

Billy Taylor Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the a ...

(ENG) * Reserve umpire: Jermaine Lindo (USA) *

Match referee A match referee is an official appointed to oversee professional cricket matches. Match referees for Test matches and One Day Internationals are appointed by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Most matches below international level do not ...

Simon Taufel Simon James Arthur Taufel (born 21 January 1971) is an Australian former cricket umpire who was earlier a member of the ICC Elite umpire panel. He won five consecutive ICC Umpire of the Year awards between 2004 and 2008, and is widely regard ...

(AUS) * Toss: MI New York won the toss and elected to field.

Summary

Following New York's decision to field first,

Quinton de Kock Quinton de Kock (born 17 December 1992) is a South African international cricketer and former captain of the Proteas in all three formats. He currently plays for Titans at the domestic level and for South Africa in T20Is. He was named the Cri ...

played a brilliant knock of 87 runs off 56 deliveries, with

Shubham Ranjane Shubham Ranjane (born 26 March 1994) is an Indian-American first-class cricketer who plays for Goa. He made his first-class debut for Mumbai in the 2016–17 Ranji Trophy on 21 November 2016. In December 2018, he was bought by the Rajasthan Ro ...

's 29 off 16 and

Dwaine Pretorius Dwaine Pretorius (born 29 March 1989) is a former South African international cricketer who currently plays in various T20 leagues around the globe and for North West in domestic cricket as a bowling all-rounder. He announced his retirement fro ...

's cameo of 21 runs off 7 taking Seattle to 183 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. With the ball for New York,

Rashid Khan Rashid Khan Arman (; born 20 September 1998) is an Afghan international cricketer and captain of the Afghanistan national team in the T20I format. In franchise leagues, he plays for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Adelaide ...

and

Trent Boult Trent Alexander Boult (born 22 July 1989) is a former New Zealand cricketer who represented the New Zealand national cricket team, New Zealand cricket team in all formats between 2011 and 2024. He continues to play in various Twenty20 leagues ar ...

both picked up 3 wickets a piece, with Steven Taylor and

David Wiese David Wiese (born 18 May 1985) is a South African-born former Namibian cricketer who has played for Namibia in international cricket. Wiese became eligible to play international cricket for Namibia due to his father having been born in Namibia. ...

taking a wicket each. In the chase,

Imad Wasim Syed Imad Wasim (; born 18 December 1988), commonly known as Imad Wasim, is a Pakistani cricketer who played for Pakistan national cricket team from 2015 to 2024. He is a left-handed all-rounder. Imad is considered as a Twenty20 specialist and pl ...

and

Wayne Parnell Wayne Dillon Parnell (born 30 July 1989) is a South African professional cricketer who has played Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket for the South Africa national cricket team. At domestic level he playe ...

got some early breakthroughs for Seattle but couldn't stop

's stunning knock of 137 * off 55 deliveries taking New York to a maiden MLC title.

Seattle Orcas innings

Seattle got off to a slow start, with New York's Trent Boult and spinners keeping

and Nauman Anwar in check. Anwar eventually fell in the fourth over to

, trying to loft a back-of-a-length delivery over leg. de Kock and

Shehan Jayasuriya Gampalage Shehan Naveendra De Fonseka Gunawarna Jayasuriya, or commonly Shehan Jayasuriya (; born 12 September 1991), is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who played for Chilaw Marians in Sri Lankan domestic cricket and has represented Sri L ...

steadied the innings, accumulating 41 runs for the second wicket, before Jayasuriya was out caught and bowled by Steven Taylor. Hienrich Klaasen, too, fell for 4 off Rashid's bowling in the twelfth over. Thunderbolts' player Shubham Ranjane then came in a played a cameo of 29 as de Kock fell for 87 to Trent Boult. Imad Wasim and

Andrew Tye Andrew James Tye (born 12 December 1986) is an Australian cricketer who plays One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for the Australian national cricket team. At the domestic level he plays for Western Australia crick ...

fell for relatively low scores in the death before Pretorius's cameo of 21 in the final over powered Seattle to 183 for 9.

MI New York innings

In response to Seattle's 183 for 9, New York's Steven Taylor was bowled by Wasim early into the innings, trying to loft a shot for a maximum. Even as Nicholas Pooran was unleashing a blistering assault at the other end, Shayan Jahangir failed to pick up the pace and was eventually caught by Tye off Parnell for 10. Dewald Brevis then came into the mix, with him rotating the strike back to Pooran, who was single-handedly winning the game for New York. Seattle's bowlers were unable to find a response against Pooran, before they finally found a breakthrough after Brevis was run out for 20. With the score 137/3 after 12.2, Pooran and

Tim David Timothy Hays David (born 16 March 1996) is a Singaporean and Australian cricketer. He played for the Singapore national cricket team between 2019 and 2020, before switching allegiance to Australia in 2022. He was part of the Australian team's s ...

steered the chase and won the game for New York by 7 wickets.

Scorecard

, colspan="4", Extras 5 ( lb 1, wd 4)
Total 183/9 (20 overs) , 20 , 6 , 9.15 RR Fall of wickets: 25/1 (Nauman Anwar, 4.1 ov.), 66/2 (Shehan Jayasuriya, 9.1 ov.), 91/3 (Heinrich Klaasen, 12.1 ov.), 142/4 (Quinton de Kock†, 16.1 ov.), 157/5 (Imad Wasim, 17.6 ov.), 157/6 (Shubham Ranjane, 18.1 ov.), 163/7 (Andrew Tye, 18.5 ov.), 181/8 (Dwaine Pretorius, 19.5 ov.), 183/9 (Wayne Parnell, 19.6 ov.) ---- , colspan="4", Extras 7 (lb 1, wd 6)
Total 184/3 (16 overs) , 13 , 15 , 11.50 RR Fall of wickets: 0/1 (Steven Taylor, 0.3 ov.), 62/2 (Shayan Jahangir, 4.6 ov.), 137/3 (Dewald Brevis, 12.2 ov.)

References

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