The second season of the Major League Cricket tournament begins on Friday night and hot on the heels of the T20 World Cup being in this part of the world, there should be plenty of interest in a tournament which is gaining in profile.
MI New York landed the inaugural title a year ago and they will be looking to fend off the other five teams and keep hold of the trophy but the squads have a lot more depth to them this term so they’ll need to play well to defend the crown.
Recent Winners
2023 – MI New York
The Format
Each team plays seven matches in the first phase of the competition which means that they play everyone else once and two more teams on a second occasion. When the league phase of the tournament has been completed an IPL style playoffs takes place with the top four progressing to compete for the title. Matches will be played exclusively in Dallas and Morrisville and the champion will be decided on July 28.
The favourites
MI New York are the favourites to defend their title. This is a squad with a good level of USA players in it with the captain of that side, Monank Patel, Shayan Jahangir and Steven Taylor all in a squad which also includes Rashid Khan, Tim David, Nicholas Pooran and Kagiso Rabada among others. I always think that these franchise events are as much about the strength of your home players as the overseas ones and MI New York tick all the boxes so they should go well.
The San Francisco Unicorns certainly don’t carry as much of a home threat, although Corey Anderson is in this squad, but they bring a lot of firepower with the bat and the ball to the party and they should be respected as a result of that. The likes of Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sherfane Rutherford and Matthew Short bring the heat with the bat while Pat Cummins, Haris Rauf and Matt Henry will all be tough to face should conditions be as tough as they were at the recent T20 World Cup.
The Los Angeles Knight Riders bring a strong squad to the tournament with them, as you would expect being affiliated with the side which won the Indian Premier League. Sunil Narine and Andre Russell were big features in that title success and they’ll look to repeat the feat here while Jason Roy, David Miller, Shakib Al Hasan, Spencer Johnson and Adam Zampa are all high class overseas signings. They also have the man in Ali Khan who many thought was the best USA bowler heading into the World Cup along with Shadley van Schalkwyk while Nitish Kumar and Unmukt Chand are two of the better home batters.
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The Outsiders
The Seattle Orcas have two of the better performing USA players from the World Cup in their ranks in the form of Aaron Jones and Harmeet Singh and around them there is a strong South African flavour to their squad with Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton and Heinrich Klaasen all in the squad. Two South African bowlers are here too in Nandre Burger and Wayne Parnell while the wily Imad Wasim could be a good signing but the Orcas might just lack a bit of depth for my liking.
The Washington Freedom have done some good work with their squad. They have the other two big USA performers at the World Cup in the form of Andries Gous and Saurabh Netravalkar who bowled that brilliant super over against Pakistan. They have also added top class overseas options such as Steve Smith, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell and Lockie Ferguson to the mix while Akeal Hosein had an excellent T20 World Cup, as did Marco Jansen until the final. The Freedom could be much more than dark horses.
The Texas Super Kings are the other team in the competition and as the name would suggest they are linked to the Chennai Super Kings who usually go so well at the Indian Premier League. Milind Kumar is their standout home player and they have the Afghanistan duo of Naveen-ul-Haq and Noor Ahmad in their ranks as well as the seasoned Chennai stars Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway and Mitchell Santner. Aiden Markram and Marcus Stoinis are useful pick ups as well.
Betting
This feels a wide open competition in behind MI New York but as we saw in the SA20 earlier in the year, the MI tag doesn’t always equate to the title so I’m going to take them on, although I do accept that if they fire at the right times in the competition they are going to be hard to beat. The team that I like to have a decent chance at a price is the Washington Freedom who could really catch fire if they come together in these conditions.
When I look at these franchise events I always want a good home bowler on my side and in Saurabh Netravalkar the Freedom certainly have that. I also want a powerful batting unit and that box is definitely ticked, especially if Glenn Maxwell can come to form. Washington can go with seam up top if the conditions are tough like they were at the World Cup, or spin if the pitches tire a little later in the tournament, which they certainly could do in Dallas. At 13/2 the Washington Freedom are the pick for me.
Tips
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