MI New York Captain, Nicholas Pooran, played one of the greatest T20 innings you will ever see to lift his side to a dominant seven-wicket victory over the Seattle Orcas to claim the first ever Major League Cricket title at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Sunday.
The day started with the Orcas making a respectable 183-9 off their 20 overs after being put in to bat by Pooran.
The bulk of their scoring was done by South African superstar, Quinton De Kock.
The opener, fresh off 88* in Qualifier 1 against the Texas Super Kings on Thursday to help the Orcas advance to the final, made a 52-ball 87 including nine fours and four sixes on Sunday.
He was supported well by Shubham Ranjane and Dwaine Pretorius who had scores of 29 and 21, respectively. Pretorius’ knock came off just seven balls and included three fours and a six.
Rashid Khan was, as usual, brilliant with the ball for MI New York with 3-9 from his four overs while Trent Boult took 3-34 from his four over spell.
MI New York’s chase got off to a rough start when Steven Taylor was bowled by Imad Wasim for a duck in the first over but then, the Pooran show started.
In what was a magnificent knock, the left-hander from Trinidad hit 10 fours and 13 sixes on his way to a 55-ball 137* to lead his team to victory. His fifty came up off just 16 balls while his century took 40 balls.
Dewald Brevis was the next highest scorer with 20 as MI New York needed just 16 overs to reach 184-3 and put themselves down in the history books as the first ever champions of Major League Cricket.
Pooran ended the tournament as the leading run scorer with 388 runs in eight matches at an average of 64.66. He was also named as the tournament MVP.
His MI New York teammate, Trent Boult, topped the leading wicket-taker list with 22, 11 more than anybody else.