Shepherd and de Kock make the difference as MI New York defend 132 in Pomona
Marcus Stoinis put on a strong all-round show, with 3 for 14 and 36 in 31 balls, but couldn't take Seattle Orcas over the line
Marcus Stoinis put on a strong all-round show, with 3 for 14 and 36 in 31 balls, but couldn't take Seattle Orcas over the line
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Rvel Zahid
Okay, so that brings us to the end of our coverage. On behalf of Venkat Raghav, this is Rvel Zahid saying goodbye
Marcus Stoinis, Player of the Match: We thought it was probably about par. We had our chances to restrict them, which we didn't take, and that's unfortunate. But we were reasonably happy, I think. We squeezed them really well in the back 10 overs. I thought all 40 overs were tough to bat. I'm not sure whether that was the twilight period; it was definitely a bit of a grind. Unfortunately, it got to the stage where we really needed to hit some boundaries. We did that and got the game close. Jassy batted phenomenally, so credit to him. But we just lost wickets consistently, and it's hard for new batters to start and score on a pitch like that. So, yeah, it's a bit unfortunate.
What a game of cricket! It was anybody's game in the last five overs and Stoinis nearly got his side over the line. He had the upper hand against Pollard but one error brought New York right back. They had dominated for the most part, but in those last few overs, Orcas threatened to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Pollard held his nerve. brilliantly. Earlier, Quinton de Kock thumped a wonderful fifty on this tricky surface with uneven bounce and got his team to a par score. Stoinis led with both bat and ball and there was excellent bowling from Baartman as well. But MI New York also have a potent bowling attack and kept the pressure on right from ball one, bringing the innings to a halt and breaking partnerships at frequent intervals. Nobody got going apart from Stoinis and that is the reason they fell short of the target towards the end. Bosch bowled with some real heat, returning his best T20 figures, while Shepherd didn't give anything away, pushing with hard lengths and having a ball on this surface. Ugarkar was expensive, but in all, New York bowlers never seemed like letting batters get off the hook and found ways to keep things tight.
MP Stoinis c Shepherd b Pollard 36 (50m 31b 5x4 1x6) SR: 116.12
Marcus Stoinis put on a strong all-round show, with 3 for 14 and 36 in 31 balls, but couldn't take Seattle Orcas over the line