MINY vs SEO

It is half past 4 here in India and on that note, this is Dwaipayan Mukherjee, signing off with my hard working co-commentator Darpan Tikiya! See you around soon! 

Kieron Pollard, MI New York Captain : Well played to the guys, we knew it was going to be tough to bowl in this heat but that helped us a lot. When you look at our team, there are about 2-3 additions and a very solid plan on how we want to play and last year, we had our challenges but it was understanding where do we need to do better. To be able to call up one of the senior bowlers around in the circuit (on Rashid Khan), credit to the management for picking him up. We all know how dangerous he can be (on Nic Pooran), on his day he can win a match by himself and he's someone capable of finding the boundaries. Nice to have started with a win and looking forward to the next match which is coming up shortly.

Heinrich Klaasen, Seattle Orcas Captain : Always good to lead a side, I enjoy the challenge of captaining. It was a little bit slow, made it difficult for stroke making and we lost many wickets. Not too bad in the bowling front, it was then down to the quality of Pooran and of course, they batted much better than we did. The team is gelling well, we look forward to the next match. 

Nicholas Pooran, Player of The Match : Nice to get a win. I wanted to take responsibility and give the team a start and then finish it for us. Bowlers were great, powerplay was particularly great for us and then Rashid did what he is best known for, so I felt that it has been a complete team effort. I wanted to recognise the state of the game, understand the match-ups and the condition of the wicket. I just played according to the merit of the ball. So I am glad that all of that could happen tonight. 

Trent Boult (MI New York): I thought the boys performed very nicely today. It is a new year and a new competition. But its a ground we are familiar with. It is nice to get a couple of points. Little bit of bounce there but having played here last year, these are familiar conditions. On to the next one tomorrow. 

MI New York (111 for 4) defeat Seattle Orcas (108 all out) by 6 wickets 

Nicholas Pooran - 62* (37)| Tim David - 12 (15) 
Cameron Gannon - 2/40 | Zaman Khan - 1/17

It was never going to be a gigantic effort for MI New York to chase down a total of 109, even after their openers in Monank Patel and Ruben Clinton struggled to get going. When Nicholas Pooran came out and smashed 22 runs in the 5th over of the chase, things became increasingly difficult for Seattle Orcas to really stake a claim in this match. 

Pooran, who smashed 137 from 55 balls against this bowling unit in the final of last year's MLC, continued his good work on a surface that looked much different from when the Orcas were setting up their target. MI New York have been brilliant from start to finish and there was not much to make of what Klaasen and his men had done in this game. 

Honestly, it would be a bit harsh to comment on the bowling front since the runs were never daunting enough for them to play with. Robin Petersen, coach of MI New York, could not have been happier to see how his men turned up tonight. For Heinrich Klaasen, he would like to believe that this was just a bad day at the office and they would not be defined by what transpired today. 

It is the biggest victory in terms of balls left in the MLC history and it was a very fluent innings by Pooran - almost fitting that the leading run scorer from last year's competition gets the first half-century of this season! It is also his 41st in this format and a very useful partnership with his captain as well to tick this game in the most appropriate way. 

14.2 Zaman Khan to Kieron Pollard, SIX!! THE SKIPPER FINISHES OFF WITH SOME FLAIR. Zaman delivered this one in the slot and Pollard's eyes lit up. He launched it over deep midwicket for half a dozen. MI New York win by 6 wickets.

14.2 Zaman Khan to Kieron Pollard, BUMPER! Pollard lets it go. Umpire Erasmus calls an overhead wide, while also signalling "one for the over".

13.5 Cameron Gannon to Nicholas Pooran, SLAPPED FOR FOUR! Length ball with width on offer. Pooran places it to perfection as the ball thuds into the boundary cushions at backward point. 

13.3 Cameron Gannon to Kieron Pollard, length ball, angling in to the right hander. Tucked away to square leg. That single brings up the 100 for MI New York. 

13.2 Cameron Gannon to Nicholas Pooran, fuller ball. Pooran drives it and opens the face of the bat as he makes contact. The ball races to deep backward point and they run one. 

13.1 Cameron Gannon to Nicholas Pooran, FOUR! Gannon bowls from around the wicket and delivers this one into the slot. Pooran stands tall and lofts the ball over extra cover. One bounce before she goes on to cross the boundary cushions. 

Just the formalities left now - Pollard has close to 13000 runs in this format - having played the most matches in this format as well (661 matches) - wonder if he would like to take some time out there to play himself in. Zaman's over only goes for 3 runs.