The Major League Cricket competition continues on Saturday when the champions MI New York go in search of immediate back-to-back wins when they face off against the Washington Freedom in game three of the event in Morrisville.
MI New York got their title defence off to a winning start in the tournament opener against Seattle Orcas on Friday and they will take early control of the table with a victory here. Washington get their season underway in this match.
Washington Freedom
We get to see the Washington Freedom for the first time in this match. The Freedom made it through to the finals last season but couldn’t get the better of this opponent in the Eliminator so they will be out for a bit of revenge. The extra two matches will probably benefit the Washington side because they do look very strong this term so the more matches that they play the less chance that weather or a freak innings costs them their season.
This looks to be a stronger squad than the one that the Freedom had last season. They have added genuine top class quality in the likes of Steve Smith, Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell and while two of them replace Moises Henriques and Glenn Phillips, there certainly isn’t a downside in that. Anrich Nortje joining the opposition here could be an issue but they have added Lockie Ferguson in what is a like for like replacement. I’m expecting big things from the Freedom.
MI New York
MI New York went into the competition as the favourites to retain their title and we got a glimpse as to why in that opening match as they controlled it from start to finish. You would have to say that it was a good toss for them to win in conditions which were not completely unknown because this tournament was here last year, but given that it wasn’t used for the World Cup they weren’t completely recognisable without some play on them.
Having chosen to bowl first, New York were soon into their work and never really gave off the impression that they were going to allow Seattle to get anything close to a par score. Their bowling changes all had the desired effect and the bowling performance as a whole set the game up for their batters. It is fair to say that only one batter got going in that run chase and that might be a concern but it does show the individual quality they have at their disposal so they will never be out of a match.
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Key Players
Travis Head faces up to his nemesis in this match in terms of a left-arm swing bowler with the new ball. If Washington want to remain on terms early they need the Australian to get the better of the battle with Trent Boult.
Nicholas Pooran was the leading batter in this tournament last year by a country mile and he has already got off to an excellent start this term. MI New York will be hoping that he can continue his good form here.
Betting
We should be in for a good match here, although the MI New York side have to back up a performance from the day before which is never an easy thing to do. Washington are fresh and probably have nothing to lose in this match because New York are expected to dominate the competition so if they can land an early blow on them then that would certainly bode well for their chances in this campaign.
I suspect the run line might be a little on the high side here though. These two bowling units look very good and have bowlers that keep the runs down in the powerplay which is what you want when you are backing unders in runs. They will take wickets too. The pitch didn’t play great here in the opening game and less than 24 hours after that one finishing to this one starting I’m assuming we’ll be on the same wicket. Only one player had any sort of innings striking at over a run a ball in that first match here and you sense the bowling units match up well to the batters here. I’ll take under 319.5 runs here.
Tips
Back Under 319.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
