We have another match taking place in the Major League Cricket competition on Monday night when the MLC 2025 campaign reaches the halfway point for the inaugural champions MI New York and the San Francisco Unicorns.
The Unicorns have made a perfect start to their season and will be looking to make it five wins from five here while MI New York haven’t had the desired beginning to their campaign but can strengthen their top four position with a win here.
MI New York
This is turning into a campaign of what might have been so far for the MI New York side. They have one win and three defeats but they will have felt that they tossed a couple of wins away earlier in the season so although they sit in fourth position, they might feel that they should be better off than the two points they currently have on the board. There is no time for licking wounds in franchise events like this one though, they have to get back on the bike and go again.
One defeat where they can’t claim that they were unlucky was their latest one against the Washington Freedom. They were beaten much more comfortably than the end score suggested and if they are going to get back into the upper echelons of this tournament and go deep in the event then they are going to need their bowling unit to step up and be counted at some point. The lack of a top class mystery spinner seems to be counting against them, which further illustrates how damaging the sudden loss of Rashid Khan so close to the season starting was.
San Francisco Unicorns
The San Francisco Unicorns’ season has been in complete contrast to that of their opponents here. They have played four, won the lot and in truth it is hard to argue that they have had much in the way of competition or opposition in those games so far. We are already at the stage where they will qualify for the finals with one more win and then their sights will be set firmly on securing a top two finish and giving themselves all of the luxuries that come with it.
I do still think that if the Unicorns are going to win this tournament then their bowlers will need to come up with a way of containing sides because their power hitting batting unit will fail at some point, and they certainly wouldn’t want that happening in a knockout clash or when it really matters, but should they win here and give themselves the chance to push on then they can tinker with their attack until they find the right combinations with defeats not being as damaging.
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Key Players
We haven’t seen anything at all of Nicholas Pooran in this competition so far In four matches he has faced a total of 49 balls but you suspect if the MI New York side are to win a potential shootout here then he is going to need to play a substantial innings
Finn Allen is having a season to remember for the San Francisco Unicorns. He is the top run scorer in the tournament and 33 of the 119 balls that he has faced has been hit for six and another 14 of them have gone to the rope via the ground. A big innings from him here will have the Unicorns nicely placed.
Betting
We have already seen the matches move around the squad at this Dallas ground which has led to a short boundary to one side, which basically makes three short boundaries at this venue because the straight ones aren’t particularly big either and that makes me think that we are going to see sixes here. These are two of the three most powerful batting units in the competition, if not the top two, and sixes should flow here.
The San Francisco Unicorns lack a spinner to contain sides and there isn’t really a standout one in terms of mystery in the MI New York side. Batters here include Finn Allen, Matt Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Tim Seifert, Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard among others and with the wickets playing beautifully here so far I’m expecting the sixes to flow throughout this one. The 21.5 line is slightly on the higher side of where I would want but we just had 25 in the Sunday night match and there is no less power on show here.
Tips
Back Over 21.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
