Texas Super Kings Captain Faf du Plessis guided his side to a nine-wicket victory over MI New York, the defending champions in the 2024 Major League Cricket Eliminator match at Dallas on Thursday.
Super Kings chased down the target of 164 with 18.3 overs left, and du Plessis made 72 runs from 47 balls. Devon Conway played an unbeaten knock of 51 off 43 deliveries, which was vital in their win.
Du Plessis’ innings had three sixes and six fours; this saw him being named player of the match. His partnership of 101 for opening wicket alongside Conway laid a solid foundation for chase.
Texas Super Kings vs MI New York as it happened
Conway and Aaron Hardie held their nerve after du Plessis’ dismissal. Hitting two sixes and three fours, Hardie scored an unbeaten quickfire 40 from just twenty-two balls. A total of 66 runs were never separated between them when the duo led their team home without losing any wickets.
After his team’s victory, Du Plessis harped on about getting off to an excellent start as well as praising his teammates for their individual contributions.
“Really good intent. If you get a good powerplay then you can get ahead in the game. We were fifty for no loss and that was important.” “It was having that combination where someone plays with merit; I am the aggressor but batting partnerships work when you compliment each other” “It was frustrating innings I know Conway would be frustrated with that knock such chases always needed an in-batter that is scratchy one.” All along we maintained around about run-rate now.
We didn’t know whether to field or bat first because they are a pretty good chasing team. Which means everything will work out at last? ”Bravo got injured so we needed somebody to bowl those last few overs. Stoinis bowling the 19th over was an unbelievable game changer but even Hardie delivering the last over has made a difference of 5-10 runs; that is what you get from experienced guys,” he said in a post-match interaction.
The victory means Texas Super Kings stay in competition to play loser of Qualifier 1 between Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns.
MI New York’s title defense ended with this loss in playoffs. Skipper Kieron Pollard recognized his team’s weaknesses and assured that they will return stronger next time.
“In the last two overs we wanted to add some more runs; it could have been a good score psychologically at 170.” “But, conditions were better during the second innings.” “There are different reasons for our loss including fielding errors.”
But Texas deservedly won. We fought all the way and are not satisfied with this finish. “We have to keep working hard and there are some guys who need to get up to standard with the level of cricket” “We made it through to the playoffs but haven’t played good cricket at all”, commented Pollard. “Hopefully, we come back stronger next season”
MI New York had a tough start after they were put into bat. They lost Dewald Brevis for zero and Nicholas Pooran for just eight runs, both of whom were caught by Marcus Stoinis, to leave them 18 for 2 in the fourth over. A partnership of 39 between Shayan Jahangir and Monank Patel gave some solidity before Dwayne Bravo broke the partnership, dismissing Jahangir who made 26 off 23 balls.
Rashid came on next to partner with Patel, but their potential stand was nipped in the bud by Noor Ahmad who got Patel out on 48 from 41 balls. Rashid tried to get some runs quickly with little help from his partners Romario Shepherd (eight) and Kieron Pollard (six). At the end of twenty overs MI New York were all out for a score of 163/8.
