2023 Major League Cricket final

The 2023 Major League Cricket final was a day/night 20-over cricket match played on July 30, 2023, at Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas between the Seattle Orcas and the MI New York to determine the winner of the inaugural season of Major League Cricket. The MI New York won the match and the title by defeating the Seattle Orcas by 6 wickets. MI New York player, Nicholas Pooran, was named man of the match for his 55-ball 137*.

Background
On June 13, 2023, the schedule for the 2023 season of Major League Cricket was released. 2 venues, Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina were scheduled to host the games. The play-off schedule was announced on the same day, with Grand Prairie due to host all play-off matches. The final was played between Seattle and New York on July 30, with the latter winning the title by 7 wickets.

Group stage
In the start to their inaugural campaign, the Orcas' went top of the table by recording a 5-wicket win over the Washington Freedom, a 35-run win over the San Francisco Unicorns, and an 8-wicket win over the Texas Super Kings. The Orcas' winning streak was snapped, however, during a 2-wicket defeat to the Los Angeles Knight Riders. A 2-wicket win over MI New York assured the Orcas' a first-place finish going into the finals nevertheless.

In contrast, New York began their campaign with a 22-run defeat to San Francisco. This was followed by a 105-run win over Los Angeles in their second game, a 17-run loss to Texas in their third, and a 8-wicket win over Washington in their fourth. In their final group stage game, they lost to table-toppers Seattle by 2 wickets. Despite the loss, they nevertheless still qualified for the play-offs.

Playoffs
The playoffs were played in a similar fashion to the Indian Premier League, with Seattle defeating Texas by 9 wickets in the Qualifier and New York recording back-to-back victories against Washington and Texas in the Eliminator and Challenger matches, respectively, to go to the finals.

Match officials

 * On-field umpires: Wayne Knights (NZ) and Paul Wilson (AUS)
 * Third umpire: Billy Taylor (ENG)
 * Reserve umpire: Jermaine Lindo (USA)
 * Match referee: Simon Taufel (AUS)
 * Toss: MI New York won the toss and elected to field.

Summary
Following New York's decision to field first, Quinton de Kock played a brilliant knock of 87 runs off 56 deliveries, with Shubham Ranjane's 29 off 16 and Dwaine Pretorius's cameo of 21 runs off 7 taking Seattle to 183 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. With the ball for New York, Rashid Khan and Trent Boult both picked up 3 wickets a piece, with Steven Taylor and David Wiese taking a wicket each. In the chase, Imad Wasim and Wayne Parnell got some early breakthroughs for Seattle but couldn't stop Nicholas Pooran's stunning knock of 137* off 55 deliveries taking New York to a maiden MLC title.

Seattle Orcas innings
Seattle got off to a slow start, with New York's Trent Boult and spinners keeping Quinton de Kock and Nauman Anwar in check. Anwar eventually fell in the fourth over to Rashid Khan, trying to loft a back-of-a-length delivery over leg. de Kock and Shehan Jayasuriya steadied the innings, accumulating 41 runs for the second wicket, before Jayasuriya was out caught and bowled by Steven Taylor. Hienrich Klaasen, too, fell for 4 off Rashid's bowling in the twelfth over. Thunderbolts' player Shubham Ranjane then came in a played a cameo of 29 as de Kock fell for 87 to Trent Boult. Imad Wasim and Andrew Tye fell for relatively low scores in the death before Pretorius's cameo of 21 in the final over powered Seattle to 183 for 9.

MI New York innings
In response to Seattle's 183 for 9, New York's Steven Taylor was bowled by Wasim early into the innings, trying to loft a shot for a maximum. Even as Nicholas Pooran was unleashing a blistering assault at the other end, Shayan Jahangir failed to pick up the pace and was eventually caught by Tye off Parnell for 10. Dewald Brevis then came into the mix, with him rotating the strike back to Pooran, who was single-handedly winning the game for New York. Seattle's bowlers were unable to find a response against Pooran, before they finally found a breakthrough after Brevis was run out for 20. With the score 137/3 after 12.2, Pooran and Tim David steered the chase and won the game for New York by 7 wickets.

Scorecard

 * colspan="4"| Extras 5 ( lb 1, wd 4) Total 183/9 (20 overs)
 * 20
 * 6
 * 9.15 RR

Fall of wickets: 25/1 (Nauman Anwar, 4.1 ov.), 66/2 (Shehan Jayasuriya, 9.1 ov.), 91/3 (Heinrich Klaasen, 12.1 ov.), 142/4 (Quinton de Kock†, 16.1 ov.), 157/5 (Imad Wasim, 17.6 ov.), 157/6 (Shubham Ranjane, 18.1 ov.), 163/7 (Andrew Tye, 18.5 ov.), 181/8 (Dwaine Pretorius, 19.5 ov.), 183/9 (Wayne Parnell, 19.6 ov.)


 * colspan="4"| Extras 7 (lb 1, wd 6) Total 184/3 (16 overs)
 * 13
 * 15
 * 11.50 RR

Fall of wickets: 0/1 (Steven Taylor, 0.3 ov.), 62/2 (Shayan Jahangir, 4.6 ov.), 137/3 (Dewald Brevis, 12.2 ov.)