An exhibition of exhilarating powerplay hitting was followed by a long stutter, but the good work done by Mitchell Owen up top was enough to carry Washington Freedom through to victory over MI New York in their MLC 2025 game in Dallas on Saturday.

Chasing 189 for their third win, Freedom ended the powerplay on 74 for 2. Owen had hit 48 of those from 21 balls, with four fours and four sixes, young medium-pacer Rushil Ugarkar the worst hit, conceding 22 in the second over of the innings, when Owen hit three sixes.

But Owen fell in the eighth over, Freedom having lost Rachin Ravindra and Andries Gous already by that stage. Worse for Freedom was that Mark Chapman just didn’t seem to be able to get a move on, and his 41-run stand with Jack Edwards for the fourth wicket took 5.5 overs. But, importantly for Freedom, Chapman didn’t throw his wicket away even as wickets fell in a rush at the other end, Sunny Patel and Naveen ul-Haq doing most of the damage.

Then the death overs started, and overs 17 and 18 combined for 3 for 2 – Trent Boult conceded just one run, picked up one wicket, and looked like he would get a wicket with each of the other deliveries in the 18th.

Unfortunately for MINY, they had been forced to bowl out all their premier bowlers, and had to turn to Ugarkar for the 19th, and that was the release Freedom and Chapman needed to finish the job in the last over, bowled by Kieron Pollard.

After they were asked to bat, MINY rode on Quinton de Kock and Monak Patel’s big hitting to get to an imposing 70 in the powerplay. The turnaround began off the first ball after the phase, Owen the man doing it with the ball on this occasion, though the full delivery on the pads didn’t deserve a wicket, perhaps. Another day, Monank would have flicked it for six. Here, he sent it to Mark Adair at deep fine leg.

With all the firepower MINY have in their ranks, 70 for 1 in 6.1 overs shouldn’t have been much of a bother, but Nicholas Pooran hasn’t been the Nicholas Pooran we know. After a blazing start to the IPL, his form had tapered off, and he hadn’t gotten into double-digits at MLC 2025 before this game. He did here, but his 33 took 30 balls, slowing the innings down, and MINY also lost de Kock for a 34-ball 55 in that period, compounding their woes.

It was only Michael Bracewell’s  24-ball 42 not out, studded with five fours and six – one of only four in the entire innings – that gave them a total to bowl with. It almost proved enough.

As a comparison, Freedom scored 74 and 95 in the powerplay and middle overs, respectively, much more than MINY’s 70 and 78 in their innings. It’s not like MINY really stepped it up at the death, scoring just 40 more, but Freedom had lost five wickets by the time the death overs started, and two more within eight balls of the death phase for the addition of just three more runs. It almost cost them two points but, thanks to Owen and Chapman, they squeaked through.

The win took Freedom to six points from four matches, the same as Texas Super Kings, but Freedom are third on the table because of an inferior net run-rate to Super Kings. MINY, meanwhile, are fourth with one win from four games.

Brief scores:
Washington Freedom 189 for 8 (Michael Owen 60, Raachin Ravindra 10, Andries Gouse 14, Mark Chapman 45*, Jack Edwards 30, Glenn Maxwell 16;  Naveen ul-Haq 2-28, Sunny  Patel 2-37, Trent Boult 2-38, Rushilo Ugarkar 1-35, Naveen ul-Haq 2-28, ) beat MI New York 188 for 4 in 20 overs (Quinton De Kock 55, Michael Bracewell 42*, Nicholas Pooran 33, Monank Patel 32, Glenn Maxwell 1-37, Michael Owen 1-29, Ian Holland 1-06) by two wickets

[Cricinfo]