MLC 2025
Kieron Pollard smashed a half-century and picked up a wicket © MLC
Kieron Pollard’s 36-ball 50 from No.6, a frugal 19th over and a combined effort from the other bowlers in favourable conditions helped MI New York defend 142/9 against Los Angeles Knight Riders – despite a fighting effort from Unmukt Chand – to keep them in the hunt for a playoffs spot. The win pushed them up to fourth ahead of Seattle Orcas, even if only momentarily. The fight between them and Orcas for the last playoffs spot is set to go down till the very last league game this season.
MI New York’s high-flying batting unit was put to the sword very early by the Knight Riders as Shadley van Schalkwyk took out Quinton de Kock and Tajinder Dhillon while Corne Dry accounted for Monank Patel – all in the PowerPlay. Only two fours and a six were hit in this period as the conditions in Lauderhill continued to side with the bowlers. Nicholas Pooran and Michael Bracwell attempted a recovery, albeit a slow one, as Holder unleashed Sunil Narine in the middle-overs, who came away with a spell of 1-20 in 4 overs. Andre Russell and Dry operated too, repeatedly resorting to slower deliveries to mess with the batters’ rhythm.
In the 10th over, Narine had Pooran caught behind for a 24-ball 30. Dry then dismissed Bracewell in the 13th over to leave MINY in doldrums heading towards the death overs. But then came the vital 44-run stand off 32 deliveries between Pollard and George Linde that pushed the team past the 100-run mark. Linde spent a lot of the time during this alliance at the non-striker’s end while Pollard found the flourish that none of the top-order batters did. The veteran took down Russell for two sixes in the 17th over and followed it against van Schalkwyk to reach his 34-ball fifty. He fell in the penultimate over and MINY could manage just seven runs in the 20th to push to 142/9, but it was enough for the bowlers to work with.
The Knight Riders’ endured a false start to chase when Andre Fletcher was run out in the second over. Fletcher pushed forward and set off for a run, only to be told to go back by his opening partner. Fletcher turned around but slipped and failed to make his ground in time. Unmukt Chand looked to get going as he hit two back-to-back fours off Trent Boult in the third over, but the Knight Riders could only limp to 38/1 in 6 overs. The slow crawl in chase was kept up despite Chand and Alex Hales being in the middle as only four fours were hit until the halfway stage. The asking rate for the second half of the chase slowly crept up as the chase went on, with Nosthush Kenjige, Bracewell and Rushil Ugarkar bowling back-to-back tight overs. Sherfane Rutherford then opened up against Bracewell and the Knight Riders headed to the death overs needing 44.
Chand brought up his half-century off 42 deliveries in the 16th over with the chase still within the grasp of Knight Riders. In need of wickets, Pooran brought back Boult to bowl him out in the 17th but didn’t get the desired returns as Chand and Rutherford took nine runs off it. The game swung closer to the Knight Riders when Rutherford hammered two fours off Ugarkar in the 18th over to take the equation to 21 off 12.
Then came the game-turning penultimate over from Pollard. The big West Indian went away from Rutherford’s arc, forcing him to reach out to deliveries outside the off-stump and had him caught at backward point on the second ball. He then mixed up his lengths and pace against Andre Russell and Chand before the Knight Riders retired out the half-centurion on 59 off 48. Pollard’s exceptional effort gave Ehsan Adil 16 to defend in the final over – also his first of the game. He kept Russell and Holder down to just five runs off the first four balls but the former put one away for a four to bring the chase down to 7 off 1. Adil then nailed his yorker to Russell to deny him the chance to drag this game to a Super Over.
Brief Scores: MI New York 142/9 in 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 50, Nicholas Pooran 30; Shadley van Schalkwyk 3-24, Corne Dry 2-25, Jason Holder 2-28) beat LA Knight Riders 136/4 in 20 overs (Unmukt Chand 59, Sherfane Rutherford 29; Nosthush Kenjige 1-14, Kieron Pollard 1-12) by 6 runs
© Cricbuzz
