The night after the top two met in the Major League Cricket campaign, the two teams currently third and fourth in the MLC 2025 table meet when the defending champions Washington Freedom take on the team they took the title from in MI New York.
With these two teams being the only two sides to have won the title we know that this should be a competitive match, especially as the winners will be well on course to finish in the top four and be able to have another crack at the title.
MI New York
MI New York had a frustrating Oakland leg of the season I think it is fair to say. They could have come away with three wins but in the end they had to settle for just the one so they might not be too disappointed to be heading to Dallas for this contest. New York looked to have their opening game won but snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at the death and then they had the San Francisco Unicorns where they wanted them but allowed them to wriggle free too.
To the credit of MI New York, they were comfortable winners of their most latest outing, although it remains to be seen what they beat when they saw off the Seattle Orcas. Were they to win here it would be more of a statement for that they can do over the remainder of the competition. Their batting finished their 20 overs in that last game against Seattle but they would still like their bowling to be a little tighter the longer this tournament goes on.
Washington Freedom
The Washington Freedom enjoyed their time in Oakland more than the MI New York side. They were comprehensively beaten in their opening game but then they bounced back in style to win their second and third ones and all of a sudden they go to Dallas in decent shape and if they can find a third straight win here, the defending champions will be lurking ominously as we head towards the halfway point of the group stage.
Washington are coming to the boil with the bat once again which is no bad thing because there is a rather easy case to be made that they have the most effective bowling unit in the competition so when the batters back them up they are tough to beat. That attack did go round the park at the hands of the Unicorns in that opening match but game by game we are starting to see the bowling unit that propelled the Freedom to the title last year, which is definitely no bad thing.
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Key Players
Monank Patel was moved up to open the batting for the MI New York side last time out and he responded with 93 from 50 balls. The New York side will be hoping for another similar knock from the America international here.
We saw Glenn Maxwell at his devastating best in the last match for the Washington Freedom as he plundered 106 from just 49 balls. The defending champions will be hoping that he has a similar sort of knock in him here.
Betting
I’m a little surprised that the Washington Freedom are the outsiders for this match. We saw last season just how good this team can be when given the chance and the signs are starting to be seen that not much has changed, even though they don’t have the class of Steve Smith and Travis Head to call upon. Mitchell Owen is doing the Head role pretty well and the Smith role has been filled by a combination of players who all look in decent order.
More importantly for the Freedom, their bowling unit looks like it is coming good again and they are a very dangerous side when that is the case. New York have some fearless hitters of a cricket ball in their ranks but for me they are an out and out batter light and that might prove to be the difference here. If Washington can get stuck into the New York batting early doors then they might open an end up at some point and with the Freedom batting deep they may well have New York covered. I’ll go with the champions here.
Tips
Back Washington Freedom to beat MI New York for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Boylesports
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