MI New York beat Washington Freedom by five runs to win their second MLC title on July 14, Monday. It was a thrilling final with the New York prevailing in a close contest.
Batting first, the MI New York scored 180 runs for the loss of seven wickets. Quinton De Kock starred with the bat for MI, scoring 77 runs off 46 balls. He added a 72-run stand with opener Monank Patel (28 runs from 22 balls).
MI skipper Nicholas Pooran scored 21 runs from 17 balls. Batting all-rounder Kunwarjeet Singh scored 22 runs off 13 deliveries to help them get to 180 runs batting first.
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Watch Last Over Heroics From Rushil Ugarkar
For Washington Freedom, it was Rachin Ravindra who kept them in the chase with his knock of 70 runs from 41 deliveries. Jack Edwards scored 33 runs off 22 balls while Glenn Phillips scored an unbeaten 48 runs off 34 balls but still could not get the job done for Washington Freedom.
The hero with the ball for MI New York was the 22-year-old Rushil Ugarkar. He took the key wickets of Rachin Ravindra in the 16th over and skipper Glenn Maxwell in the 20th over to turn the tide towards New York's favour.
With Glenn Maxwell batting, Washington Freedom needed 12 runs to win in the final over. With him at the other end was Glenn Phillips. However, Ugarkar kept his calm and conceded just six runs. He dismissed Maxwell and allowed Phillips to face just one ball in the final over.
Ugarkar thus turned out to be an unlikely hero for MI New York in the big final. The momentum started shifting towards MI New York in the 17th over by Trent Boult in which he conceded just seven runs. However, the next two overs were expensive with Freedom scoring 17 and 12 runs from overs 18 and 19 respectively. That left Ugarkar with 12 runs to defend in the final over which he did in style.
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Fairy-tale comeback from MI New York To Win 2nd MLC Title
Meanwhile, this is a fairy-tale comeback for MI New York to win their second MLC 2025 title. They just won one out of their first seven games and started the turnaround in the second half of the season. They won five out of their final six games, including the Eliminator, Challenger and the final match.
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