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Episode 1: MLC Week 1!
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Introducing The American Over, a brand new cricket podcast with Dhruv Gupta and Neel Mehta. This week we're looking back at the first week of the MLC 2026. We then take a look at the team compositions to predict how the second week and rest of the season will play out.
Transcript
Introduction to The American Over Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to The American Over, a new podcast about cricket in the USA. My name is Neil. And I'm Dhruv. We're two college friends with a lifelong love for cricket.
Rise of Major League Cricket
00:00:11
Speaker
With the MLC picking up Major League Cricket, it'll be fun to discuss it live and kind of engage with other fans.
00:00:18
Speaker
Let's jump straight into it, Neil. Take us through the history of the MLC a little bit. Yeah, so after many disastrous attempts at starting a T20 league here the United States, Major League Cricket launched in 23 as the latest and hopefully greatest iteration of T20, 2020 cricket here the United States.
00:00:35
Speaker
So we got six teams, and we're now entering the fourth season. So it's kind of a strange ownership situation. So you got three teams that are basically owned by the IPL teams. So we got LA Knight Riders based on Kolkata. We got the Texas Super Kings based on Chennai.
00:00:49
Speaker
And then we got the MI New York. No points for guessing where that one's from. We also got three teams that are locally owned, so to speak.
Team Success Stories
00:00:56
Speaker
Seattle Orcas are owned by Satya Nadella, interestingly enough. That's a pretty cool one. And SF Unicorns, which i think is I think is probably one of the best team names in all of American sports. Oh, yeah. Genius name. SF Unicorns, they understood the assignment.
00:01:08
Speaker
And then you got the Washington Freedom, which is not bad. That's a good name. Also good. Not bad. It's not bad. I'll give them that. I'll give them that. Anyway, so you got six teams. Mumbai Indians of New York have won two of the three seasons. And then Washington Freedom won another one. Mumbai Indians come in as the reigning champs.
MLC Season Structure
00:01:25
Speaker
So the way it works, is is a pretty short it's a pretty short season, all things considered. So six teams, each team plays each other five times, each other five teams twice. You've got 30 games spread across about a month, a month and a half.
00:01:37
Speaker
And we've got four playoffs as well. So in this podcast, we'll going aim to cover all however many weeks we got of the season. And so basically the way it's it's structured is the first stretch of the season, you start off playing in a special cricket facility in Grand Prairie, Texas, think is by Dallas.
00:01:52
Speaker
And later they moved to SoCal to play some games. I think it's Oakland. then they'll play some games in SoCal. then they return to Oakland for the finals. And with luck, we will be there ah for the finals. So that should be fun.
00:02:03
Speaker
Very excited for that. Very excited for that. By the way, I think they prefer my New York. That's horrendous. I've never, as a New Yorker, I'm still never going support them. that's it's they they i think they were going to be called the New York Chakras or the Cyclones.
00:02:18
Speaker
And I think Sachin Tendulkar himself intervened and said, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, that's the story. That's the story. He was like, we've got to be the Indians. I guess, look, man, when you're someone like such in one, you can't say no. And two, I guess he just has to play for India.
00:02:31
Speaker
That's what it is. Listen, Cleveland has the Browns. They used to have the Indians. they got good am i should Am I should have gone to Cleveland, man. You know, that's all I'm saying. Cleveland cleveland Indians would have been. Bring back the Cleveland Indians.
00:02:46
Speaker
I hear myself saying that. Yeah.
International Players in MLC
00:02:50
Speaker
and I mean, I think one of the most interesting things about about the T20 League here is you've got some big names shuffled in with some less than big names, right? You've you've got – mean, maybe we just start to go through some of these teams here, right? Like you just look at Seattle – Tim Seifert coming off of that huge, huge World Cup opening stand. Very impressive. Just an incredible form. Incredible form. And then just some, you know, their bowling attack, their all-rounding attack is absolutely incredible. Bartman and Geedy, lot of South Africans on this team.
00:03:22
Speaker
I think what happens is you're going to get a lot of South Africans, Australians, Kiwis. There's some West Indians as well. So you kind of get everything. You don't get the Brits, right? Because they're off playing the 100th. And then Indians that have, what is it, the rule that you can't, BCCI won't let you play in another domestic league if you want to play in IPL or something like that, or you can't play for the National League.
BCCI's Rule and Its Impact
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to play for, if you want to, the the rule is that if you want to be centrally contracted, whether that's domestic Ranji or whether that's playing for India, or you even want a chance to play for India, or if you're an Indian player trying to play for the IPL, you cannot play internationally. So you're seeing like, you're saying like KS Bharat, who just retired from Indian cricket and moved to the UAE, or, I mean, we're we're about to get to it, but SF Unicorn's Ravi Ashwin,
00:04:11
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Like that's a big name. Yeah. That's a huge name. That's a, huge he didn't have a great, he didn't have a great game a couple of weeks ago, but, or a couple of days ago, rather, but great, great big name. I mean, he's a genius of the cricket.
00:04:23
Speaker
Oh, I mean, but we'll get into his one outing. Maybe that wasn't the best, but yeah who else they got? Finn Allen, Harice Ralph. I mean, I don't know how about, I don't know about him but he was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. L'Andre Vitorius. Harris Ralph, man. As a Virat Kohli fan, you know I'm always happy to see Harris Ralph struggling.
00:04:42
Speaker
Well, you had a good time the other day, didn't you? Yeah, yeah that's right that's right. And then SF, so so to you're talking about Peter Siddle, right? this guy This guy is making waves, and I'd never heard of this guy. It turns out he actually was kind of a big name right a little while ago.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he's he's been out of international cricket for eight years, seven years, something like that. And for a 41-year-old, it really does not look like he should be playing as well as he actually is. Obviously, his pace has dropped over the last few years, but I mean, he's keeping up, right? He he had a great couple of outings, taking a ton of wickets. He's the top wicket taker right now in the MLC. Very impressive. very believe it yeah ah Speaking I was going to say, you've got this really old talent and you've got really young talent here with
Key Performances in Recent Matches
00:05:27
Speaker
Pretorius, right? this This guy's barely 20.
00:05:30
Speaker
He's 20. Incredible, right? Speaking of 41-year-olds, we got Faf, Faf Du Plessis on the Texas Super Kings. He did very well for himself the first match. To be honest, there's not really much on the Super Kings beyond that. I i think Keishab Mahraj is on there, but I don't think he, did he bowl at all? I don't remember seeing him at all.
00:05:46
Speaker
I don't think he's bowled yet. Look, this is another South African team, right? Nandre Berger, just an incredible, incredible bowler. He's got all that height, which really helps him. on Mulder. We on Mulder is an interesting case. I, I really like we on Mulder as a, as an all rounder. He's a decent bowler. He's an even better batsman. I mean, he almost in that test, he almost broke a, you know, he almost broke the record. Um,
00:06:12
Speaker
But he he's just, I don't think he has the setup for T20 batting. I think he finds it very hard to accelerate. I think he finds it very hard to, in modern T20 batting is flat pitches, you know, and you go you go to attack pace. And he's he's a better ODI batsman and a much better test batsman.
00:06:34
Speaker
I think he knows how to stick around. i think he struggles when he has to hit out and or get out. And, you know, maybe that changes over time, but I think that's why he struggled in other T20 leagues around the world.
00:06:47
Speaker
We'll see if he picks it up. That'll be interesting to see. All right, let's see. Who else we got? New York. So Nicholas Puran, you remember him. So he he retired at the ripe old age of 29, by the way. Last year, retired from international cricket just to play T20 leagues. So he's out there for New York right now.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah. Kyron Pollard. So this guy recently, think yesterday, he broke at Chris Gale's record for the most T20 runs. T20 Ireland. Yeah, something like that. There was big news about that.
00:07:14
Speaker
He put up a century yesterday. So very, very impressive. Who else got? Trent Bolt, Corey Anderson, Quinton DeCock. mean, not bad. Incredible. I mean, I think this is an incredible lineup, to be honest with you. Like, you've got Nikki P, who is out of form with LSG in the in the IPL.
00:07:31
Speaker
um Romario Shepard, who was also out of form for RCB. But look, like, that's the that's the whole thing. Maybe it doesn't work out when when you're playing for the IPL, but you're back here. getting a little bit back into form qdk was a little bit short for runs i think in in the ipl as well but then you've got mumbai mumbai does this interesting thing where they'll contract players across the internationally right so guzzin fire bolt poly these guys are all household mumbai indian names uh even qdk is either currently plays for mumbai indians or you know did a stint i actually don't remember
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, he's currently at the Mumbai Indians. And so he he you know, these guys just like go around the world and just play for play for Mumbai. Even Romario used to play for Mumbai. That's pretty cool.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah. but that That may explain, you know, the two out of three wins I've had so far. i Maybe I'm not the hell in them repeating this time, but you know we'll get into that later. So, all right, let's see. LA, I didn't see that much in LA.
00:08:31
Speaker
Older, Andre Russell, Sunil Narayan, I mean, pretty good. i didn't see that much out of depth. What do you think? I mean, Holder had a had a brilliant IPL season, so he's definitely in touch. Dre Russ is getting old. like you know It does seem to be disrespectful of of you know an incredible talent for the West Indies, and and his his KKR IPL record is also pretty strong. But he's, i don't know, not everyone can be a super successful 41-year-old. Sunil Narayan is similar to that. like
00:09:02
Speaker
Just incredible, incredible talent, but it's just... Generational talent, but I think he's he's been a little bit out of form. But it's a similar thing, by the way. Like Dre Russ, Sunil Narayan, they're all KKR, you know, in andrews the IPL. And now they're here with the LAKR. think we're going to start to see a lot more of these contracted players across across leagues.
00:09:24
Speaker
it wouldn't It wouldn't surprise me, especially as IPL ownership really own that you know grows and and picks up more. Well, the interesting thing is... Yes, sure, they've contracted abroad, but they finished sixth, fifth, and sixth out of six. Well, it was three years, right? So I don't think we can say that just because they're contracted, right, necessarily means that ah the team's gonna succeed, right? NY and l LA, of course, are tale two cities.
00:09:49
Speaker
No. So surprising. People put together. don't know. yeah Yeah, and and you know they maybe they care, maybe they don't, right? like It kind of looks like like after last year,
00:10:01
Speaker
Trinbago, like if we look ahead to the CPL, Trinbago Knight Riders, right? These guys, lot of the same team so a lot of the same team, right? A lot of the same players. It could also be be just one of those things where like, very frankly, like the MLC for them could be the warmup going into the CPL.
00:10:19
Speaker
That's possible. That's very possible. That would explain there's so many what West Indians out here, right? All right, last last team was rounded out. Washington Freedom, very, very cool lineup.
00:10:29
Speaker
Very cool lineup. Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, everyone's golden boys, Saurabh Nettervalker. Very, very cool. Very, very cool. Mark Chapman, I like the Mark Chapman. Rutch and Ravinder apparently too. So, but you know, the Kiwi and Aussie heavy. i think it's a good lineup. I like them.
00:10:45
Speaker
Kiwi and Aussie heavy for sure. Steve Smith, it's it's funny to see some of the captaincies here, right? Like you've got Steve Smith, who is just an absolute decorated captain. um i Don't... This is my hot take. My hot take is that Steve Smith is not a T20 batter. Like, you saw him in the BBL this past year accelerating. Like, quite a bit, actually. he was pretty successful. But then you saw him very hit and miss in the PSL. He had that famous, you know, famous situation with Baba Razum where they got into a fight. But I...
00:11:19
Speaker
I don't know. i mean, you've like, even in these like past couple of matches, right? What was it? a Run a ball 27 from Steve Smith? Like, it just doesn't seem like he's on a flat pitch. Doesn't it really seem like he's he's kind of holding his own. All that being said, Glenn Maxwell, when he's in form, when he's in touch, which is rare nowadays, but when he's in touch...
00:11:40
Speaker
He can win you a match. i mean, you and I both remember that 2023 ODI World Cup with with him against Afghanistan on his own. Ratchan Ravindra, you know, has all the makings of a generational talent. And then what can we say about our, you know, Oracle engineer over here? You know, that hasn't already been said.
00:11:59
Speaker
ah All right, yeah. but All right, so let me get some cool lineups. why don't we go to some of the matches? So there's been five matches so far. I think despite Willow TV's best efforts, I did manage to watch a couple of them. It was so funny. You actually, ESPN Crick Info stopped updating the live feed because I think it was it think it's a TSK match where there was like some runout or something, and it was so bad that Willow TV just went down for like 20 minutes.
00:12:22
Speaker
And then ESPN Crick Info said, sorry guys, we've got no news for you. And next thing you know, you come back and it's 89 for 7 or something horrendous. That's so funny. oh Anyway, despite that, I watched a couple. So you i don't want to go into all the detail about every single one. So let's pick a couple. which are What are some matches that you're just in? kind of really liked the first, like just that opening day match. Yeah, yeah. Like quite a bit. I mean, you saw, i mean, that was just absolute blast, right? like' Just so everyone, if you aren't keeping up with the numbers. So that's Seattle Orcas. they These guys, they didn't drop a wig until the 17th over, I think the 18th over.
00:12:58
Speaker
Ended up 2-20 for two. Their opening partnership was 191, 192. Yeah. Which I think told me record, right? Yeah, it was a record. You had Tim Seifert and Shan Jahangir out there just whacking it, and right? Like it it felt like they were unstoppable. And they were for for quite a bit of the match, right? Until, what was it, the 17th over, the 14th over, something like that. it was they They went very far into it.
00:13:23
Speaker
They slowed down a lot. And yeah, and and this is like the classic thing, right? they TSK took a couple of wickets and just absolutely took all the air out of the room. Momentum completely dropped.
00:13:35
Speaker
I actually noted this on a couple of different matches. So these guys, there's a big problem with these people slowing down towards the end i don't know it's something about the pitch, but so look, so Orca's got 30 runs in the inning over. They got 6, 8, 5, 7, 8, and 18.
00:13:47
Speaker
It's good finish, right? But
00:13:51
Speaker
good finish right but Come on. You have 9, 10 wickets in hand. There's like three overs left. You've got to accelerate. I mean, look, I'm not going fault these guys for batting so well at the beginning. But, you know, you would expect a little bit more acceleration. I think the other problem, and and this is something that made it interesting as an opening match, right, is that you would think that 220 is terrific total.
00:14:12
Speaker
Yep. However, what we're realizing is that that's kind of a par score at best here. So I pulled some numbers. So last season, the average run rate in, there are two other venues that are being used. One was in Florida. One was in, I'm going to say, ohak it was Oakland. Yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
So the other ones are about nine runs and over. This one is about 10 runs and over was the average. So you tell me what you think about the pitch surface and kind of the, kind of the conditions, but, I think Seattle came in not realizing that you'd want to go for 250, 260. I mean, it was a highway. That was an absolute road of a pitch. And there was no reason for... But that but that being said, it's the first match, right? So you're you're settling in for a couple of balls. you're You're trying to figure out you know what what exactly you should be you should be running for. And then...
00:15:02
Speaker
i think it was I think it was incredibly difficult for these guys to suss that out and and and figure out, okay, like we're going at 160 strike rate. Cypher has just hit a century. Jahangir is at 70. think he ended at either 74, 78, something like that. strike rate, that's a great place to start. And then you have the chasing team, Faf, come out and look at that and say, you know what, that's not good enough.
00:15:30
Speaker
And he's going at a $200,000 plus strike rate. Riley Rousseau going at a $200,000 plus strike rate. Because these guys saw what happened, figured it out, and just kept going. Yeah, i mean, ah let's see.
00:15:42
Speaker
There's been an epidemic of some of these using seven bowlers. So Seattle out here used seven different bowlers here. None of them looked that good. Bartman, maybe not a great showing to start. He was better later, right?
00:15:52
Speaker
But yeah, I guess I just couldn't solve them. I think, look, I think i think TSK was probably on on route to like maybe 240, 250. And think it's a pretty reasonable kind of score to go after.
00:16:05
Speaker
yeah Incredible at times we live in the 250 is kind of like a good score. You know, like okay score here, right? I think the Orkans had, had they just been a little more aggressive at the end, they would have had it. They would have had Right. I think so. I think they could have had it. and I think so. Cause you're, cause you're also seeing, if you look at Texas, I think one of the things that you and i were talking about earlier is just not that much depth in their, in their lineup. it It's, it's lot of people. No one's ever heard of. i mean, Russo, I mean, he's pretty good.
00:16:31
Speaker
Milan Kumar didn't look very good, but like people heard of him. We on motor, I think he's reasonably good. Right. But top heavy, top heavy as heck, man. Yeah, Texas is this has a like a lot of Americans in their batting lineup, and and they're just they're okay, especially relative to some of these you know celebrated international players. That being said, look, you have Donovan Ferreira. When he's in form, he can really be in form.
00:16:56
Speaker
and And some of their bowling attack maybe makes up for it, right? You've got Milne, Berger. just Just feels like they weren't playing you know first match and all of that. Doesn't feel like they were playing their best. I think it's, even from Seattle, it's tough when Marcus Stoinis has your best figures.
00:17:11
Speaker
yeah That's true. 13 off three. Small sample size. I think it was, it was hey, it's good cameo, right? i take I'm looking at his bowling numbers and, and you know, one off, lowest economy there. does eight thats yeah That says something about the rest of your bowling lineup.
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah. but they they the The next match they had was the O'Neal Bartlett show. That's true. That's true. You know, not much depth beside that. You are right.
00:17:40
Speaker
You are right. All right, let's look. What other matches? I was interested in match number four. This was Texas Super Kings. Did not look very good at all, by the way. They were, think they were 88 and 7.
00:17:52
Speaker
They limped their way to 152 for 9, which is not bad, I guess, considering circumstances. And then SF Unicorn just cruised to victory. 153 for 3. What interested me in that one, Luandri Pretoria is something special, man. I like that kid.
00:18:05
Speaker
It was really fun to watch him. got 69, not out of 55. So, not that hard of a target. But I thought they handled pretty well. i general like I generally like i like the lineup pretty well. What did you think?
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, look, we had to talk about this match. This was Ravi Chandra Nashwin's first match in the U.S., i I don't know. it's the It's kind of the same thing, right? we This is what we were talking about. Very top heavy. And it felt like because Faf couldn't get going. Yes. And Riley Rousseau had a little bit of a tough tough outing as well.
00:18:38
Speaker
It felt like they made this pitch look harder than it actually was. Yes. Because when SF Unicorns come in and and look like you've got the heavy roller, you've got a little bit of the you know the pitch possibly settling in. And it was a different surface from what they were batting on earlier.
00:18:55
Speaker
You know, like, it it I think they made it harder than it actually had to be. Yeah, like, Faf, six off seven.
00:19:06
Speaker
Not good. Russo, I think, pretty did pretty well across two matches. 36 off 29. But there's not much depth. Like, when's your second opener, Saitajan Mukamala? I've never heard this guy. Maybe you have. But I don't know, man. There's not much going on. They recovered well at the end.
00:19:20
Speaker
But... You know, look, they they could have they could ended at 110, 120, right? But guess they improved a bit. What dod you think of Ashwin? I mean, this guy's bowled a grand total of two overs, so it's hard to say, but what do you think? 24 off two overs. what What did you think? Was the was the pitch not behaving for him? Did he not? I mean, I watched it, and his his first ball was hit for six like very easily. yeah It was not a good entrance wheel, man. welcome so What do you think?
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, tough, tough welcome. Yeah. Tough start. I, yeah I don't know. Like the the thing is like on one hand, like there was something in this pitch for seamers, right?
00:19:59
Speaker
There was definitely like the ball was, ah the the pitch was a little bit slower. Ball was gripping just a little bit. That was, I think pretty clear. But you would expect that a spinner of his quality could take advantage of that because you saw Matthew Short come in for much, much bigger figures. You know, he basically went two for 25 at a 625 economy.
00:20:20
Speaker
and at a so twenty five ah ah Fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic performance. Fantastic performance. There's really no reason why Ashwin couldn't pick it up. And I think Ashwin was struggling a little bit with his lengths from what I could tell you, which is weird to say for a spinner, but just it's kind of what it seemed like.
00:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. it Like, he's also like, he might be one of the only Indians. playing out here. And Indians don't usually get to play out in these conditions. I mean, it was a hot Cuban Texas day. It's probably not that different what these guys are used to, but there could be an element of just kind of getting used to it, right?
00:20:59
Speaker
was his hit His first match, bowling, too, because I don't think he bit he bowled in the first one at all. So maybe he'll settle in, think comparison to Short is a good one. Like, he was able to get productive right away. Yep. Yeah. and And look, to be fair, to be fair, his second, but his second over was a lot better than his first one, but it felt like he was dropping, you know, it felt like he was playing pretty short.
00:21:22
Speaker
And and that's where that's where he was succeeding, actually, that like whenever he was playing a little bit shorter, what as soon as he started playing a little bit fuller and you know that's where he was starting to get hit. So i I didn't exactly understand what his plan was, but I think your your read on this is exactly correct. I think he is just trying to, you know, he's trying to understand what these pitches look like. They're very different from Indian pitches. And that's just ah that's just how it is.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
Promising Talent: Luandri Pretoria
00:21:50
Speaker
So in the end, easy win for SF. I'm excited for Rondi Vitorius. I'm looking forward to watching this guy. He's 20. Incredible. well I'm excited. We've seen a ton more in international cricket sure. I'm excited for that.
00:22:06
Speaker
as a As a certified South Africa team, dislike or how about that? I still got to watch The thought of match five. That was a Mitchell Owens show. It's his world. We're just living in it man. This guy was crazy. 155 off 68. His strike rate was, I think, above 250 at some point. It went down a little bit towards the end, but very, very very strong show.
00:22:28
Speaker
insane figures, insane. Like I, it's just, it's just surprising to see someone like that. And then, you know, Corbin Bosch basically had to come up with some of York, a beautiful Yorker magic wow to, you know, to, to get Owen to kind of miss hit that ball. Right. Cotton bull, they're always tough, but like, that's always, that's always like a really fun, you know, really fun way to get out. Plus, you know, there was some drama around it too, right. Whether it was a bump ball or not.
00:22:59
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, didn't catch to that part. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. what's interesting about Washington, right, is that you got Steve Smith. He was fine. As you said, 27 off 20. Yep. Fantastic. Glenn Maxwell's been very out of form.
00:23:11
Speaker
Mark Chapman is all right. You do have to wonder, if Mitch Owen has an off day, are like are they going be able to put up good figures? I don't know, man. Yeah, maybe maybe Steve Smith picks it up in the next game. Maybe Maxwell comes good. i doubt that. i I do really like Goose. I think that he can actually play some incredible finishing innings. He didn't this time, but I think he just you know didn't really get into get into the match. And at that point, you know they were already 230 for something. right And so you know really not a huge deal.
00:23:47
Speaker
i will say, mma New York has an incredible bowling lineup. Whenever you've got Trent, Bolt, and Corbin, Bosch in the same lineup, I just... It's incredible. Very, very good. I mean, they had they did go with seven... They had seven different guys, Bolt, so they were still trying to... They're trying to figure out the right approach. I don't know if they ended up finding one.
00:24:05
Speaker
ah Bolt did pretty well for himself. I mean, one for 50, I mean... Could be worse. Bosch did pretty well for himself. Besides that, I mean, not much to write home about. Have you heard of Rusiel Ugardkar? This guy did all right.
00:24:18
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, those are are pretty those are pretty good figures. looks like he's ah he plays for the USA. right. I mean, look, that's the thing, right? Like, really does look like the USA team has some rising stars. And the MLC is a great place for these guys to learn and and kind of gel and mix with with all these international players. Because they I don't know if they're at the quality of playing any anywhere outside of North America. ah You know, CPL, I've seen some American names, but the SA20... the hundred, but they could get there.
00:24:50
Speaker
You're not going to say, yeah, I mean, i think a lot of these guys, I remember, I remember a lot of these names from the 24 world cup. And of course, USA did very, very well for itself. Made way farther than it had any right to get. Right. So yeah that was a great experience for them this time, this most recent world cup, I think, you know,
00:25:05
Speaker
not as great of a showing. And as you said, they don't like it to play abroad much. This is a great chance them to meet and play with, you fantastic players. And, you know, we we joke about, okay, these guys are all 41, 42. A lot of experience though, right? Like you get so much from playing with and against them.
00:25:20
Speaker
So only good signs for the American talent. Speaking of signs, Neil, how are you feeling about the teams? I know it's only been five matches. Some of them have only played once.
00:25:32
Speaker
what What's your read? All right, let's, One time we should do it we should do a tier list. A tier list of six entries on it would be kind of funny, but ah that'll be fun to see. So yeah, let's look ahead, right? so So we have some games tonight.
00:25:45
Speaker
So Texas Super Kings in New York and then LA and Seattle. So we can talk about those later. After tonight, Monday Tuesday off and then they were shifts to Oakland. And we'll go play some games out there and then head down to Pomona and then back up to Oakland for the finals.
00:25:58
Speaker
So that'll be just very, very different you know conditions, different environment out there in California. So that'll be interesting. We'll see how things change out there. So yeah, let's talk about the team So ah Seattle, I think, you know, slow batting the opening match, i think that's something could get over.
00:26:13
Speaker
The top two, I think fantastic. Ritska too was pretty was pretty solid. Bartman, good bowling. i I quite like them. I think they got a pretty good lineup. They just, like the second match they played, I think, i think was the second match, the third match overall.
00:26:26
Speaker
They just cruised. They just cruised. So I think they go pretty far. ah I think maybe less in terms of like flashy names, but I think they got a pretty good, pretty good squad. don't know if you were as hot on them though. I definitely feel like they're in a different mental state from last year after really struggling in the in the last MLC.
00:26:43
Speaker
There's a couple of names that haven't come good yet, but I think can, right? Like Dustin Shanuka, Lunging Gidi. like these guys are These guys are household names in the world over. I i think they can really take this team forward.
00:26:56
Speaker
For sure. i was not hot on TSK. you You probably got that impression already. But besides Faf, I mean, i don't know. There wasn't that much. Rai Russo was pretty okay, I guess. But I'm not seeing that much from them besides... What do you think?
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, i agree with you. TSK and to be honest, LAKR as well. Both of these teams feel like they're middling and and maybe going to be towards the bottom. i i just it feels like they're dependent on FAF someone like that to have have a great day. And for LAKR, maybe Sunil Narayan to have a great day. And they kind of have to bat and bowl out of their skin to to get somewhere.
00:27:35
Speaker
I think I'm a little hotter in l LA than you might be. they They remind me of, there's a lot of baseball football teams where it's like, it's a bunch of role players, not many as many superstars, but they do very well for themselves, right? Like, look at these guys. Holder, Narine, Russell, Scalpwick, LaRue, like, pretty pretty good bowling, right?
00:27:49
Speaker
Monroe, Fletcher, Holder, and Powell on the batting side, right? Like, I like them generally. i think they did a pretty good job, right? Again, they're not then they They have a couple of the big names, obviously. No one super world famous, but yeah i think they did pretty well for themselves. I'm excited for to see them.
00:28:05
Speaker
And I think they can do better than we think. Yeah, I mean, that's fair. like i just You look at like you know Van Shalwick, right? on On a great day, he's he comes good. and He's incredible. Or you know the classic Unmukchan, right? like Colin Monroe.
00:28:21
Speaker
These guys can, i think, play great innings. i You know... I just think the bowling is going to let them down. They have too many all-rounders. lot of all-rounders. It is all-rounders.
00:28:33
Speaker
And I think the bowling is going let them down. And ultimately, like I think bowlers win new tournaments. right Catches win matches. Batters wins it win innings. Bowlers win new tournaments. well said Well said. Thanks. How come the last two?
00:28:46
Speaker
SF. Some pretty old guys. were Ralph looked awful. Ralph looked awful. Ashwin, I don't know, man. Siddle and Short, both pretty good, though. And for Torres, I think it's something else. So... It's a mixed bag, you know? Yeah. Old man's club and then the daycare is doing well for themselves.
00:29:02
Speaker
take and so That's what they called our baseball team. The Phillies baseball team when we were a bunch of 23-year-olds. They called it the daycare. That's pretty funny. That's pretty funny. Yeah, look, maybe Ashwin starts to get a little bit better. Finn Allen's just incredible. Peter Siddles having a great couple of nights.
00:29:18
Speaker
sf SF is a team that I could see come through. I think I could see it happen. I could see it happen. they've They've got good management. They've got a good team. i think they've got some good depth, both on batting and bowling. I could see it come through. And then Washington, how do you feel?
00:29:33
Speaker
Look, as a Washingtonian, I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan of the team. I actually think so. I think Steve Smith is a brilliant captain, you even if he's not a great T20 batsman, and I think that makes a pretty big difference. Retchen Ravindra, Sarbne Travolkar, between these guys, I think you've got a decent amount of depth on both bowling and batting.
00:29:55
Speaker
i so I don't know if they'll win, but we'll definitely see them in the finals. Okay. Okay. That's that's ah that's a bold prediction. I like some of their guys on paper.
00:30:06
Speaker
Max Lovie put it together. Steve Smith, I think just that experience goes so far for you. Mark Chapman, I always like. And Mitch Owen, if he can just put the team on his back and continue. I mean, sky's the limit, man. Sky's the limit. that's They also have Marco Jansen, who I don't think he did that well, but he he's a terrific player.
00:30:22
Speaker
his His last figures were no wickets, 30 runs, three overs. like Kind of par for the course, but... I mean, this guy's got, I mean, you know, he's so good, right? I could totally see him put together some good games.
00:30:36
Speaker
One thing we didn't think about is that all of these guys have been playing in Dallas. And yeah, you had that one TSK match, of course, where Faf was complaining about the pitch. Things could change pretty dramatically in Pomona. that's ah That's a drop-in pitch. It's a new ground.
00:30:49
Speaker
Not a whole lot of cricket has been played there. And I think it's a drop-in from Australia. You can see some really low-scoring thrillers similar to the the New York matches and for the World Cup a few years ago.
00:31:01
Speaker
terrible, terrible pitch should not have happened. Absolutely garbage tier, but it was entertaining for us. So could be, it could be really a great watch. That was fun to go watch. Indeed. It was good time. Yeah. i mean, look, we got so many good more games being played on in California, much drier, much colder out there.
00:31:18
Speaker
So I could see it being a little, i don't know what the pitch in Oakland is going to look like. Um, But it was, I think it was of the three stadiums had last time, it was in the middle. 9.23 average run rate by my number. So I think we'll see a little bit more normalcy.
00:31:35
Speaker
And Pomona, we'll see, man. Could be good one. That's the first time he's in that venue. No way of knowing. No way of knowing. Oakland might have had a higher run rate because it's a much smaller ground as well. So that could be part of it. That absolutely could be one.
00:31:50
Speaker
Okay.
Predictions and Closing Thoughts
00:31:51
Speaker
right, cool. So how are feeling for the week ahead? You want want to want to make some predictions for tonight? How do you feel? Oh, man. i I am so bad at predictions. I'm literally always wrong. So we'll we'll we'll see. But, yeah, I mean, you've got some interesting matches, right? LAKR, Seattle Orcas.
00:32:09
Speaker
I think la is going to be trying a different couple of different combinations, and we'll see what ends up coming through. Seattle is probably feeling pretty good about that, but you know, keeping Washington down to a decently low score.
00:32:22
Speaker
and then chasing it down ah relatively quickly with with the Washington Freedom. So I think they'd be kind of going in a little bit on the up. Texas and am i Neither team looks like a good man, to be honest. Yeah, right? They've been both kind of struggling.
00:32:35
Speaker
i don't even know if that'll be an entertaining match, to be honest. I think it'll be a low-scoring one. I think I could see both batting teams kind of struggle. They both look pretty pretty pretty ugly yesterday, the last couple of days. So i see it being low-scoring one.
00:32:49
Speaker
I'd probably take MI for that one, and then LA-Seattle probably takes Seattle. projects seatl Bold predictions. probably agree with you, though. I probably agree. Let's see, man. Let's see. Yeah. right, well, this has been fun.
00:33:03
Speaker
And I'm looking looking forward to a couple of different good matches. And we'll probably be back next week, same time, same place. Thanks a ton, Neil. And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for tuning in. And we'll see you next time.
00:33:16
Speaker
See you next time. Bye-bye.