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MLC 2025: A clash of contrasts as MI New York and Washington Freedom eye second title

Published

7 months ago

2025/07/13

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Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran celebrate after putting MI New York in final [Cricinfo]

The reactions of captain Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard summed up MI New York’s path to the MLC 2025 final after they had been teetering on the brink, having lost six of their first seven games. Then they suddenly made the playoffs and peaked there, emulating their parent franchise Mumbai Indians in the IPL, knocking out San Francisco Unicorns and Texas Super Kings to set up a final clash with Washington Freedom, who have been the form team throughout the tournament, with eight wins in ten league games.

It’s a clash of contrasts in more ways than one. While MINY have relied on T20 superstars like Pooran, Pollard, Trent Boult and Quinton de Kock, Freedom have found success with less experienced names after their own big players – Steven Smith, Travis Head and Marco Jansen – were unavailable for their title defence.

Freedom also lost New Zealand quick Ben Sears to injury and his replacement Matthew Forde to the Global Super League (GSL) in Guyana along the way, but they found new heroes in allrounders Mitch Owen and Jack Edwards. Left-arm seamer Saurabh Netravalkar has had another productive out-of-office stint.

Lockie Ferguson has had his load managed upon his return from injury, but Ian Holland has stepped up with vital breakthroughs. After a crushing defeat to Unicorns – their margin of 123 runs win, the biggest in the MLC – in their season-opener, Freedom have bounced back spectacularly under the leadership of Ricky Ponting and Glenn Maxwell.

While Pooran and Pollard have made the headlines for MINY’s late dash, the team has also had contributions from the youngsters. Tristan Luus, who turned 20 last month, knocked Owen over with a 140kph dart on his MLC debut and went onto take out Faf du Plessis in Qualifier 2. Twenty-two-year-old Rushil Ugarkar, who was with MI at the IPL as a support player, has also thrived in MINY’s attack in this MLC.

MINY’s attack was severely depleted by the absence of Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai and Naveen-ul-Haq, but they have dug deep for a tilt at another title.

So, who will win their second MLC title on Sunday: MINY or Freedom?

Mitch Owen has been among the most sought-after T20 players around the world after his 39-ball century in the BBL final earlier this year in January. He has since made forays into the PSL, IPL and more recently at the MLC, where he has been utterly dominant with both bat and ball. Apart from hitting 313 runs in ten innings at a strike rate over 195, he has bagged 14 wickets at an economy of 8.96. Beware of Mitch, MINY.

Monak Patel hasn’t been as destructive as Owen at the top, but his stable presence hasn’t gone unnoticed. Patel currently has 450 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 143.31 and is 19 runs away from surpassing du Plessis as the top run-getter this season. There can’t be a better advertisement for the MLC than an USA batter topping the run charts.

Ferguson is being managed carefully by Freedom and New Zealand Cricket – he has also been rested for the upcoming T20I tri-series in Zimbabwe – but is likely to play the MLC final on Sunday.

Washington Freedom (probable): Mitch Owen, Rachin Ravindra, Andries Gous (wk), Glenn Maxwell (capt), Glenn Phillips, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Jack Edwards, Lockie Ferguson, Ian Holland, Saurabh Netravalkar

There’s no reason for MINY to make any changes unless there are any injury concerns.

MI New York (probable): Quinton de Kock (wk), Monank Patel, Michael Bracewell, Nicholas Pooran (capt), Kieron Pollard, Kunwarjeet Singh, Tarjinder Singh, Tristan Luus, Trent Boult, Nosthush Kenjige, Rushil Ugarkar

[Cricinfo]

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The RAPP sheet: Steve Smith, Daryl Mitchell, Umesh Yadav among over 1300 players

Published

4 hours ago

2026/01/28

Priyan

Smith headlines a star-studded overseas list available to come in as replacements if needed [Cricbuzz]

RAPP may not exactly be a popular term in the Indian Premier League (IPL) lexicon, but it is a seminal one in the post-auction activity for the franchises. The Registered Available Player Pool or RAPP is a list from which franchises can pick replacement players.

The BCCI recently shared a long list of 1,307 players with the franchises. The list includes players who had enrolled for the auction and did not withdraw from the process – in short, this is the list of players who remained unsold at the December 16 auction in Abu Dhabi.

Steve Smith, Reece Topley, Jamie Smith and Jonny Bairstow are among the names who could be available as replacements for franchises. Even Daryl Mitchell, a perennial tormentor of the Indian team in the internationals, features on the list – No 98 on the sheet, with a base price of Rs 2 crore. He was the Player of the Series in the recent ODI series between India and New Zealand.

The capped Indians include Mayank Agarwal, KS Bharat, Deepak Hooda, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya, Sandeep Warrier and Umesh Yadav – all with a base price of Rs 75 lakh each.

As per BCCI instructions, a franchise cannot sign a player from the RAPP for less than his auction reserve price. Normally, franchises call upon players from the RAPP as net bowlers, and the BCCI has made it clear that a franchise will have no rights over a player should another franchise wish to recruit him.

ALL ABOUT THE RAPP

The RAPP list contains the names of Players who were registered for the Player Auction for the relevant Season subject to the player
(a) not having been taken in the Player Auction and
(b) not having withdrawn from the Player Auction process.

To act as a Replacement Player the player’s name must have been included on the RAPP list for the relevant Season and his League Fee for the full Season – assuming 100% availability – must not be less than the reserve price set by the Player as documented on the RAPP list.

Franchisees who separately contract with players on the RAPP list to act as net bowlers during the Season shall have no prior call on that player if another Franchisee wishes to take that player as a replacement pursuant to this paragraph 6 and must immediately release him if he agrees terms to be a Replacement Player for another Franchisee.

[Cricbuzz]

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U19 World Cup: Pakistan overcome New Zealand by 8 wickets

Published

4 hours ago

2026/01/28

Priyan

Abdul Subhan wrecked New Zealand [Cricinfo]

New Zealand continued to remain winless in the Super Six after getting swatted aside by Pakistan in Harare. In a contest that lasted less than 50 overs combined, New Zealand ended up losing by 8 wickets that kept Pakistan’s semifinal hopes alive ahead of their next clash against arch-rivals India.

New Zealand began in a poor manner losing Marco Alpe for just 2. However, the second wicket partnership carried them to 59/1 inside 8 overs to give New Zealand an excellent platform. From thereon, New Zealand lost their last 9 wickets for just 51 runs in quite an extraordinary manner. The well-set Hugo Bogue’s dismissal triggered the collapse as Abdul Subhan and Ali Raza tormented New Zealand. The duo combined to pick seven wickets as the New Zealand innings came to an end as early as in the 29th over.

Chasing just 111, Pakistan were always in command despite losing their opener Hamza Zahoor for just 8. Sameer Minhas starred once again by doing the bulk of the scoring. He hammered a couple of sixes and 10 fours in his unbeaten 76 as the Asian champions took just 17.1 overs to wipe out the target.

Brief scores:
New Zealand Under 19s 110 in 28.3 overs (Hugo Bogue 39; Abdul Subhan 4/11, Ali Raza 3/36) lost to Pakistan Under 19s 112/2 in 17.1 overs (Sameer Minhas 76*; Mason Clarke 1/34) by 8 wickets

[Cricbuzz]

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U19 World Cup: Vihaan Malhotra ton headlines India’s massive win

Published

4 hours ago

2026/01/28

Priyan

Vihaan Malhotra celebrates his hundred against Zimbabwe U19 [Cricbuzz]

A brilliant century from Vihaan Malhotra headlined India’s massive 204-run win over hosts Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in their Super Six fixture of the U19 World Cup. India’s openers, Aaron George and Vaibhav Suryavanshi, raced to 44/0 in the first four overs before the partnership was broken. But Suryavanshi continued to make merry to bring up a quickfire half-century. Zimbabwe then picked up three quick wickets, including that of Sooryavanshi, to reduce India to 130/4 but couldn’t capitalise from that point.

Malhotra joined forces with Abhigyan Kundu to resurrect India with a century stand. While Kundu hit a half-century, Malhotra batted deep into the innings alongside the lower order. Eventually, he finished unbeaten on 109 but it was Khilan Patel’s 12-ball 30 that actually helped India breach 350 to set a daunting target for the Zimbabweans.

While Zimbabwe were never really expected to mount a challenge, losing an opener off just the second ball only compounded matters. Three out of the top four failed to cross double digits as RS Ambrish and Henil Patel made early inroads. Leeroy Chiwaula stood tall with a fighting half-century but apart from him, only two more batters managed to touch double digits. Even skipper Ayush Mhatre had a great time with the ball as he picked three wickets before Udhav Mohan’s double strike put Zimbabwe out of their misery in the 38th over.

Brief scores:
India Under 19s 352/8 in 50 overs (Vihaan Malhotra 109*, Vaibhav Sooriyawanshi 52, Abhigyan Kundu 61; Panashe Mazai 2-86, Tatenda Chimugoro 3/49, Simbarashe Mudzengerere 2-51) beat Zimbabwe Under 19s 148 in 37.4 overs (Leeroy Chiwaula 62; RS Ambrish 2-19. Ayush Mhatre 3-14, Udhav Mohan 3-20) by 204 runs[Cricbuzz]