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Episode 3: Major League Cricket's Week in SoCal
32 Plays11 days ago
We recap the third week of the USA's Major League Cricket (MLC) season, where the teams played in a new cricket-focused stadium in Pomona, near Los Angeles, California. We discuss matches between the LA Knight Riders, Washington Freedom, SF Unicorns, Texas Super Kings, MI NY, and Seattle Orcas, and rank the teams' batting and bowling lineups. Plus, Saurabh Netravalkar has a great week, Sunil Narine is a monster, Steve Smith puts his test batting skills to good use, Lhuan'dre Pretorius is a one-man show, and Ravichandran Ashwin continues to be a no-show... but apparently he's joined the San Francisco AI boom. We finish by covering a rumored MLC expansion to Chicago and Toronto.
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Transcript
Washington vs LA Knight Riders at Pomona Stadium
00:00:00
Neel
Welcome back to the American Over, a podcast on cricket in the USA. My name is Neil.
00:00:06
American Over
And I'm Dhruv. Happy belated 4th July from neil in Philly and myself in Washington, DC. Big America cities.
00:00:15
Neel
Oh, absolutely. So speaking of freedom and your Washington freedom, let's talk about some of the matches last week. Washington had a fun match on Wednesday ah versus ah l LA Knight Riders, inaugurating the brand new Pomona Stadium down in SoCal. So how did that feel to you?
00:00:29
American Over
Man, that was, it's just so fun to watch low scoring thrillers.
00:00:32
Neel
Yeah, yeah.
00:00:32
American Over
Anything can happen. Netra Volker's three from 16, three for 16 from four overs. Just wow. Just wow.
00:00:41
Neel
Yeah. so So here here's the thing. L.A. Knight Riders got bowled out for 108. Extremely low score, by the way. Washington Freedom chased that to 110 and 17.1 overs. the roof I kind of feel like that was kind of slow, right? Because you look at the standings. Everyone is basically tied. Yesterday, everyone is tied at six points, three wins apiece.
00:00:58
Neel
It's all going to come down to net run rate, which is how they're going to kind of adjudicate playoff seeding.
00:00:58
American Over
Mm-hmm.
Challenges of Playing on a New Pitch
00:01:02
Neel
You got to wonder, like, couldn't Washington have chased a little bit faster? you know, finish in 10, 12 overs. You have a nice, healthy NRR kind of margin that's going to push you up a seed or two.
00:01:13
American Over
I mean, that's the dream, dude. I just, it's hard. It's hard to, on ah on a brand new pitch, that's actually not even a drop-in pitch. It's a natural pitch. You you don't even know you don't even know how to pace that innings. It's literally the first match at at the stadium. I mean, look, let's let's actually just take a second to talk about the stadium.
00:01:34
American Over
I think with a brand new pitch, it's always going to be a little bit tricky. You don't know how to evaluate it. you don't It doesn't have a pedigree to go off of. For example, I was watching a match at Old Trafford yesterday, in in India versus England.
00:01:46
American Over
um Everyone knows that at Old Trafford, you're going to have extra bounce. You know that like if the boundaries are square, then you know that's going to be the shorter... the The boundary at square is going to be shorter. You don't know those things about a completely brand new stadium like the one in Pomona. And and of course, it it gets even better, right?
The Future of Franchise-Owned Stadiums
00:02:07
American Over
Shah Rukh Khan's Knight Riders franchise... just built this stadium. its open for the first time. it's, in fact, this is something that's interesting. It's the first franchise to build their own stadium.
00:02:18
Neel
Hmm. Hmm.
00:02:20
American Over
think this is going to be the future of cricket, to be really honest with you. Franchises are going to start to own stadiums, NFL style. But it's a sand pitch with some turf rolled in to manage bounds. And i think what happens in these types of new pitches is that you have to play there for it to settle in.
00:02:37
American Over
the The stadium just opened. There's no domestic, you know, local cricket that's being played there. It just went straight to the LA Knight Riders and the freedom and the and the l LA Knight Riders were the first to bat and bowl there. And so you're going to have unpredictability as the pitch settles in. And so given all of these reasons, I actually think Washington did the smart thing.
00:03:03
American Over
Win matters a lot more than net run rate, right? And if you can't
00:03:05
Neel
That's true. That's true.
00:03:07
American Over
On a tricky pitch, if you feel like you aren't able to judge the pitch and you aren't able to pace your innings, you might as well play slow and just go for the win. And the pitch hasn't settled in yet. And so think they made the right choice. What you think?
Performance Evaluation Across Stadiums
00:03:23
American Over
what do you think
00:03:24
Neel
Yeah. I mean, it's, if you look at the kind of overall structure, right? So first leg of the season was in Dallas. That is also a purpose built cricket stadium, but they'd had that for a couple of years. I think the Knight Riders have inherited it as their home stadium, but it's already been there. So they definitely know that stadium.
00:03:38
Neel
That one, of course, as you said, a couple of weeks ago, absolute highway, you know, but 200, 250 runs is pretty normal.
00:03:41
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:03:43
Neel
You know, Oakland, uh, of course being a well baseball football stadium, rest in peace to the Oakland teams. Right. Uh, you Now ah ah SF has taken it over, ah but you know we've played a couple of seasons there, so we know that pitch. Pomona, of course, being absolutely a new stadium.
00:03:56
Neel
Exciting to see that you know they purpose-built stadium, real pitch. like That's awesome, right? This is what we need to look forward to as cricket goes on. i would hope to see if one day all six teams have their own ah home ground. So that's really cool. I think it's it's cool we got to see this, and we're coming up towards the end of that whole week out in Pomona. So we can talk about some more ah of the matches. just Just going back to this one.
00:04:17
Neel
ah You make a good point. Yeah, like the the run rate was kind of going to be difficult here no matter what. In fact, both teams had pretty similar run rates. It's just that ah l LA ran out of wickets faster, right? Like they they got to 108 in 17.5 overs out of wickets, obviously.
00:04:29
American Over
Yeah.
00:04:30
Neel
And then Washington Freedom got to that just about same total in 17.1 overs. So yeah, it's it's hard to say that, ah you know, Washington wasn't aggressive enough because they kind of just kept they just kept the pace, right?
00:04:42
Neel
and they just managed to avoid losing some of the wickets. In fact, bowlers on both sides, i would say, look pretty good. ah l LA had Narayan getting four ah four overs, 25 runs, two wickets. Pretty solid. Nutter Walker, 16 for threes, we discussed.
00:04:56
Neel
Owen, Mitch Owen, by the way, 19 for three. This guy is also, by the way, the top scorer still in MLC.
00:04:58
American Over
yeah
00:05:02
Neel
So this guy is super, super versatile on both sides of the ball.
00:05:05
American Over
Yeah, Mitch Owen is having an in c incredible, incredible season.
00:05:05
Neel
ah love to Love to see it, honestly.
00:05:09
American Over
And I think he's the one holding freedom like together, to be honest.
00:05:13
Neel
Yeah.
00:05:14
American Over
like You have Steve Smith continuing to pretend to be a T20 batter.
00:05:14
Neel
Oh, absolutely.
00:05:18
American Over
like But look, on the pitch like this, dropping anchor like that, that was the right choice. That was the right choice. And Mitch Owen maybe doesn't have a great batting match. He's a great bowling
00:05:30
Neel
Yeah. It's funny. Owen, I think he got like one run or something yesterday off of three.
00:05:34
American Over
match.
00:05:35
Neel
He's still the top scorer, right? So that shows how good of his his his season has been. I know you kind of you kind of rag on Smith, but hey, look, 40 off 44 yesterday.
00:05:38
American Over
Yep. Yep.
00:05:42
Neel
Very good. Mark Chapman, 34 off 30. Nikhil Chowdhury chipping in 15 off 12. And that's what we were talking about, right? Like in this case, it was just maintain a reasonable pace. ah Just don't run out of wickets. And these guys managed to, you know, maybe not have the best run rate in the world, but They preserve wickets. They have longevity. And this is, I think, a situation where a good test batsman, right?
00:06:02
Neel
That's the skill set ah that they're going to bring, that they're going to they're going to need. So, hey, you know what? Steve Smith was the right man for the job.
00:06:08
American Over
Yeah, I think I completely agree with you. i think I completely agree with you. And and look, like as long as you keep that as long as you keep that innings going, you win the match.
00:06:18
Neel
Yeah.
00:06:18
American Over
Nothing else matters, dude. And look, it reminds me a lot. Honestly, I think it was quite similar to the match that they had yesterday, even.
00:06:26
Neel
Absolutely.
00:06:26
American Over
um SF at at Washington Freedom, right? Like SF came in with 126 right at the top and and Washington chased it down relatively, like relatively stably as far as we could tell, right?
00:06:38
American Over
Even similar figures, right? Jack Edwards, who, by the way, like a breakout match for him, in my opinion.
00:06:45
Neel
absolutely
00:06:46
American Over
but four from thirteen four for 13, just incredible figures. Incredible figures. Washington, the last couple of these games, bowling really tight.
00:06:57
Neel
Absolutely. Nezher Walker, a bit of an off night. One wicket, 31 runs off four. I mean, not bad, right? His economy overall is 9.4. So he's been a little bit expensive. he's It's funny, you know, he's, he's a you know, I think edward everyone's favorite player, but, you know, his his numbers haven't been fantastic.
00:07:07
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:07:11
Neel
He does look good. He just hasn't played very much. I don't know if Oracle's doing layoffs or what, but, you know, I haven't seen much of him. He was decent, though.
00:07:17
American Over
Don't jinx it, man.
00:07:19
Neel
I, okay, I shouldn't, I shouldn't.
00:07:19
American Over
Don't jinx it. Yep. but
00:07:21
Neel
Uh, he did, he did, he did well enough. Uh, Edwards looked great. Oh, and also by the way, uh, four over 25 runs, one wicket, still pretty solid. Um, very good performance for him.
00:07:28
American Over
yep
00:07:30
Neel
I think the, so yeah, I think, I think Washington freedom, you know good bowling all around. It's funny. The number, looking to the numbers a little bit later it doesn't really show it, but it manages to win the matches. So I'm kind of curious about the, the kind of gap we're seeing there as for SF man, like,
00:07:45
Neel
You know, my boy, Lelandre Pretorius, he didn't get lift off last night. He just got 16 off 12. And I think what you see is like either this guy will get 60, 70 runs and like we knew the match single handedly or he'll struggle. And then if Finn Allen doesn't really do much either, you're you're not going to do that well. Right. So, you know, I think we talk about top heaviness. I would say it's probably SF is the ah the worst defender there.
00:08:05
American Over
Yeah, we'll talk about this a little bit later, but I think you're totally right. Our read on TSK was actually wrong.
00:08:11
Neel
Yeah, that's you better about that.
00:08:11
American Over
Yeah.
00:08:12
Neel
Yeah.
00:08:13
American Over
Yeah. um No, I completely agree with you. I think the take here that I have is it's the same. If you're going to anchor, i think you want to anchor either after you're a couple down.
00:08:24
Neel
Mm-hmm.
00:08:24
American Over
So short, I think that did the right thing, right?
00:08:27
American Over
Came in and anchored and held the innings together. In fact, I mean, a quarter of the runs were or actually a third of the runs of almost were from Matt short. And then Steve Smith, right. Plays the same thing. he runs the same playbook, right. Anchors the inning, a run a ball 50 Mark Chapman, a run a ball 45, a little bit better than a run a ball 45. And here you are, right. Like just winning the match, chasing it down, not worrying about net run rate too much. Maybe they should have, but the wind matters more.
00:09:01
Neel
This has really been, this this ground has been fantastic for chases, it seems. ah Here's another one. ah LA Knight Riders and MI New York. so LA Knight Riders, 165 for six.
00:09:09
American Over
Yeah.
00:09:10
Neel
Mumbai Indians chase it down. Sorry, MI New York, my New York, right? That's what we call it. ah They chase it down, ah got 168 for four, ah and they won off the penultimate ball. ah it was It was a tough chase. They were staring down a 51 needed off of 24, but then Kyron Pollard comes in and just has very good consistent innings with Corey Anderson. Sorry.
00:09:28
Neel
Yeah, last couple overs, 19-13. 10 and 11. So, you know, not not panicking, not slowing down, not losing wickets. ah good Good discipline batting at the death just to chase it down. So i thought it was really, really good.
00:09:41
Neel
what What do you think? Why are we getting so many good chases on this ground?
MI New York's Chase Strategy
00:09:44
American Over
Honestly, don't know. think it's because what were talking about earlier, right? Like you have tough pitch to bat on.
00:09:58
American Over
It hasn't settled in yet on variable downs, unpredictable gripping, right? And so if you try to be too aggressive, it could just backfire, right?
00:10:08
Neel
yeah
00:10:09
American Over
Like if you're gunning for that net run rate advantage, and It's just not worth it if you risk losing.
00:10:14
Neel
Yeah.
00:10:16
American Over
right like i I think that's the that's my take on this. And and so I think like the the fundamental here is, the you know the fundamental thing is like all of these successful chases have lost fewer wickets because people are choosing to not take as many risks.
00:10:19
Neel
Yeah.
00:10:29
Neel
Yes.
00:10:32
American Over
They're able to evaluate what the pitch looks like in the first innings and then you know kind of go through it. i actually think MI New York didn't do that. and
00:10:41
Neel
Hmm.
00:10:42
American Over
and i think they like i think they decided to take a little bit more of an aggressive approach they won it just on the last ball like the pitch may have been settling in a little bit because like you've seen a couple of higher scoring matches here now um over the last few few days even l a like 165 is like a decent score and and am i new york only
00:10:51
Neel
Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:05
American Over
I mean, they they made it on the penultimate ball, and so much of that was because Pauly said, it, I'm going to swing your defenses. i think that like I think that as the pitch settles in a little bit, it's going to get a little bit easier to bat on. It's going to get a little bit flatter. It's going to get a little bit more predictable, and people are going to understand it. And looks like Pauly did, and i mean just an incredible score and incredible batting.
00:11:29
Neel
I mean, we talk about the pitch settling in over time, but remember, you know, we have this, as I call it the traveling circus model. I think today is probably the last match ah being held in ah in SoCal. Then we go back to Dallas and we go to Oakland.
00:11:38
American Over
Yeah.
00:11:39
Neel
So we're never coming back here, at least not this season. So it's one of those things where, okay, you know, if it can settle in over the course of, let's say, two or three matches, kind of people get used to it. Okay, that's that's something that you'll kind of see evolution on, but you're not going to see the pitch, you know, the same way as Old Trafford whatever, right?
00:11:54
Neel
it'll It'll evolve over the course of months. The season happens too fast for that.
00:11:58
American Over
Yeah, but I mean, it also, like, it matters how the bowling team bowls.
00:11:58
Neel
So
00:12:04
American Over
It also matters, like, whether you're able to evaluate it, right?
00:12:04
Neel
yes
00:12:07
American Over
Like, QDK got out for a five-ball duck in this match, and then Puran got out for 16-off 23, right? Because for both of these guys, the new ball was gripping, and, ah you know, right, like, around the...
00:12:24
American Over
Right around the power play, right, the ball was gripping and they like weren't able to, either of them weren't able to middle the ball, right? Like QDK got off on an edge and Nicholas Perrin got out because the ball was kind of hitting the top of his bat. So went straight to the fielder. Whereas Pauly comes sees that, and it's just middling the ball. And I think as the match progresses, this is our understanding of those pitches, where it's going to grip, what lengths at which it's going to grip. It looks like both Puran and Pauly, not Pauly, QDK, got out at a three-quarter length ball.
00:13:07
American Over
And so like okay that means that like something wider and something shorter or something fuller is going to is going to grip more. and And so like at that length and and at that width, okay, great. like that's That's going to be more complicated for these guys to bat on. So you get start to get a better understanding of, like okay, what what shots can I hit on this ground?
00:13:33
American Over
What lengths are like in my slot versus like not? and And start to make that a little bit easier.
00:13:39
Neel
Yeah, speaking of bowlers adapting, bit of a a tale of two cities going on here some of the bowlers. Look at this. So Neil Narayan, four over, seven runs. That is not a typo. so Seven off four is crazy. And then Jason Holder is 47 off of four. He gets a wicket for his trouble. But, you know, I think we got to give Narayan his flowers, right? You know, I
Team Performance and Batting Depth
00:13:57
Neel
not taking the wicket, but slow him down. guess it wasn't enough, but he did manage to slow him down.
00:14:01
Neel
Holder, I mean, these are completely different approaches here, right? Very, very different outcomes.
00:14:06
American Over
Samil Narayan is just an animal, right?
00:14:09
Neel
He's been fantastic, especially last year. Yeah.
00:14:09
American Over
like He's still a legend. Just a legend of the game. And like I think the spin like spin matters, right? like Spin versus pace matters.
00:14:21
American Over
like Spin was probably just gripping more and than pace.
00:14:23
Neel
Yeah.
00:14:26
Neel
Yeah. So talking about chases, right? So we two other good chases this week. So Texas super Kings put up one 73 LA Knight writers got one 75 to win it. Uh, Powell, Paul RoveMahal came in, got 73 off of 27. So absolutely insane. Awesome chase. We've seen a lot of these really, really good chases, uh, this week anchored by, you know, often one player just going absolutely nuts. Uh, speaking of that, uh, Pretorius, uh, had his time in the sun. So, uh,
00:14:51
Neel
SF chased down 190, which is a very good total on this surface, by the way. ah They chased down 190. They got 193 off of just 15 overs. So there you go. There's your NRR boost right there.
00:14:59
American Over
Yeah.
00:15:00
Neel
Pretoria 66 off 26. Allen 45 off of 18. ah just Just really good aggression all around.
00:15:08
American Over
yeah I mean, if if SF has Finn Allen, Pretorius and Matt Short go off, game's done.
00:15:15
Neel
Yeah.
00:15:15
American Over
Game's done. And in this case, you had Aaron Hardy go off too. like, game's done in those cases, you know? Yeah.
00:15:22
Neel
Yeah.
00:15:23
American Over
yeah
00:15:24
Neel
Okay, so moving on from the matches, there was an interesting point. I was looking yesterday, right? And all of the teams were on six points, three wins. ah We talked last week about parity.
00:15:31
American Over
Yeah. Hit
00:15:33
Neel
We really got parity.
00:15:35
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:15:35
Neel
You know, now now we have some teams on eight now, but i really incredible, right? And as I said, it's come down to NRR. Why don't talk a bit about some of the teams that put together a couple of numbers about kind of how the teams look ah statistically. I think we can talk about a qualitative look too.
00:15:51
Neel
ah So let's look at the top 20. went the top 20 scores. Well, I broke it down by by the teams. So when we go through any, any interesting patterns you see there in terms of ah which teams seem to have the best and deepest batting lineups.
00:16:05
American Over
Man, i we were so wrong about Texas Super Kings.
00:16:09
Neel
Oh, seriously, man.
00:16:09
American Over
ah We were so wrong. I didn't expect Mookamala to really come out the way he did. Faf, you know, I'm not surprised, but Riley Rousseau, Donovan Ferreira, Weon Mulder, like, I'm just surprised.
00:16:25
American Over
honestly surprised by how well the South Africans are are playing right now in ah at TSK. I really thought they were top heavy. I thought they weren't going to have that middle order, but frankly, they have the strongest middle order, I'm sure.
00:16:40
Neel
Yeah. Yeah. So so in terms of methodology, I put together, you know top scores, top 20 scores broken down by team. As you mentioned, TSK five, which is the most of any team. Mokumal is at number five, which is cool. I was like, you know, I hadn't heard of this guy. This guy's doing very well for himself.
00:16:53
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:16:53
Neel
Old man Faf at number eight. And then, as you said, I think a good middle order goes a long way. These guys have Rian Mulder, 17th high score, Russo, number 18, Ferreira, number 20. And that goes a long way.
00:17:05
Neel
ah And yeah, it's the exact opposite of the top heaviness we discussed. But that's that's the joy of this kind of ah franchise cricket is these guys who maybe haven't got as much recognition as they deserve and can show themselves making good team.
00:17:17
American Over
Yeah.
00:17:18
Neel
South Africa's future looks pretty good, I'll tell you that much.
00:17:21
American Over
Yeah, that's right. That's right. And you have Washington doing the same thing with a bunch of Aussies, right? Mitch Owen, Steve Smith. um And then, hey you know, I think you have some sleepers in here, right? Like ah Seattle.
00:17:36
American Over
surprisingly decent right surprisingly decent cypher as we expected but Jahangir is playing a I think a season of a lifetime over here which which I'm really impressed by then you've got a couple of these like am New York right you were you were making comment earlier like cause or concern what do you think
00:17:46
Neel
Absolutely.
00:17:55
Neel
Yeah, so so Freedom have four of the top 20. LA Knight Riders have three. Seattle has three. MI New York has three. SFS2, we'll talk about them in a sec. Yeah, MI, I don't know, man. Like, the only top 10 guy is Purin.
00:18:06
American Over
Yep.
00:18:07
Neel
He's at number nine. So they have the lowest-ranked top scorer, so to speak. ah They also have, you know they have Pollard and they have QDK. You know, Pollard, despite not being in the top. I mean, this guy is, you know, obviously a monster in terms of chasing.
00:18:20
Neel
QDK may be a little bit little bit disappointing. But I mean, look, you got you got those guys. ah any Any total seems chaseable. And I think they are on top of the table right now. So maybe not as much cause for concern, but the numbers should make it look a little bit weird, right?
00:18:33
Neel
This also is kind of that maybe one of those situations where these guys can chase something down very well, but if they struggle, there's not really much else to go off of.
00:18:39
American Over
Yeah.
00:18:42
American Over
no
00:18:42
Neel
But you know if they're you know if the other guys can kind of keep them in the game until, let's say, 14, 15 overs, you know, then, then, then, uh, powered porn come in and finish it off. But there, there's not much depth there. So that is something to be concerned about. Uh, Seattle. Yeah. Cypher number is that number three, Jahangir is number six in terms of run scores. That's pretty impressive. Uh, we knew that their top three Cypher, Jahangir and Britska were pretty good numbers back it up.
00:19:08
Neel
Uh, it's all about SF men. So SF only has two of the top 20 scorers. That is the least of any team. Uh, Pretorius is the number two top score. Fantastic. And they got nothing else. They got Matt short of 14. That's it. Fan Allen, I don't think it's anywhere to be seen.
00:19:22
American Over
Yeah, maybe SF was the real was the real top heavyavy team that we just didn't identify.
00:19:26
Neel
Seriously. Yeah. And it's Luandre Pretorius, 20 year old kid who is the the heaviness of the top. ah
00:19:32
American Over
Yeah, Finn Allen isn't really coming off.
00:19:34
Neel
No.
00:19:34
American Over
And look, you aren't like Matt Short, I guess. But, you know, i I mean, I'm looking at their middle order. And honestly, maybe we should have guessed this be from the beginning, like just not seeing depth, just not seeing that much depth.
00:19:46
Neel
No.
00:19:48
Neel
So, Drew, if you had to pick one of these six teams batting lineups to have, would you have, like, one of the teams that has, is say, a couple of top seven guys? Or let's say TSK, who has a bunch of good guys down the middle order? What would you say?
00:20:01
American Over
I think i'm I'm between, man, look, so you could go in Seattle, right? With the the heavy hitting top order to you know, with Cypherd and, and, and Bretzky and that kind of, that kind of background.
00:20:18
American Over
um you could go with TSK where the top order is doing decent, but the middle order is really covering and and really covering some ground. You could go with Washington where you've got Mitch Owen and and all of these guys, you know, batting aggressively and, you know, number one, Steve Smith anchoring as needed house right playing always pretty consistent, great middle overs.
00:20:42
American Over
I don't, I'm i struggling, man. I think the MLC has done a great job just balancing these teams out pretty well. I'm struggling. with I'm struggling. I know who you're going to go for, though.
00:20:53
Neel
You think I'd pick Pretorius?
00:20:55
American Over
Yeah, you're going to for stories.
00:20:55
Neel
The Pretorius show?
00:20:56
American Over
but
00:20:57
Neel
I don't know, man. I actually, this is this one the interesting things about this ah this model we have, right? Like Steve Smith looks really bad out in Texas. He looks terrific down in Pomona. So, you know, i think Oakland, is which is where the finals and the playoffs are going to be, somewhere in the middle.
00:21:11
Neel
ah so We'd have to kind of see who's going to do well there. I might take Washington, man. ah
00:21:16
American Over
Yeah.
00:21:17
Neel
Chapman Smith, I think, you know, look, Smith, fantastic batsman. If he knows he has to pick it up, he can, you know, He's such a veteran. He'll find, he'll figure something out. Owen, top score looks fantastic. Mark Chapman, I kind of liked in the beginning.
00:21:28
Neel
ah SF, look, I'll tell you this much. I'll look at the first five overs and tell you of the chase or the, you know, the first innings as it may be with Pretorius. And I'll tell you how the game's going to go, right? That's kind of your answer right there.
Seattle Orcas' Bowling Strength
00:21:41
Neel
All right, let's look the bowling side of the bowl.
00:21:43
Neel
So I looked at ah top 20 bowlers by economy and then I'll also talk to the top 20-ish based on wickets. So economy wise, it's kind of it's pretty it's pretty even SF actually has five guys with ah which the most in top 20 economy.
00:22:00
Neel
ah Washington and Freedom actually has the fewest to Netra Walker is nowhere to be seen, by the way, a at 9.40 economy. Their best guys are Chowdhury and Holland. Other guys, kind other teams are kind of in in between, ah Texas super Kings actually have good contribution. They're number two. They have four guys in the top 20, uh, Ferreira, Lumba, Melanie, De Silva. So pretty cool.
00:22:20
Neel
I think pretty well, well-rounded lineup. LA Knight writers has Orion. Who's awesome. um Yeah, and then what's just looking at wickets, other thing is, dude, Seattle Orcas we have ah three of the top five wicket takers, by the way.
00:22:35
Neel
ah
00:22:35
American Over
Crazy.
00:22:36
Neel
Singh is for at 14. Otneil Bartman has 13. And Marcus Stoinis has 10. So they have the top two and three of the top five and five of the top 22. So totally lethal lineup, man.
00:22:50
Neel
ah Absolutely insane.
00:22:50
American Over
Insane bowling lineup. Insane bowling lineup. Absolutely agree with you. Insane bowling lineup. um Am I New York? I think some of their bowling isn't really coming off the way that like we were hoping it would.
00:23:04
American Over
right like And I think some of that is because Corbin Bosch is having a great season, but Romario Shepard, Trent Bould, maybe less so. ah And then Sunil Narayan.
00:23:14
American Over
What do you say about him?
00:23:15
Neel
Oh, he's awesome, man. He's awesome.
00:23:17
American Over
you know What do you say about him that hasn't already been said? But yeah, but I mean, i think if you just look at the bowling lineups, it's hard to say anything outside of I feel like Seattle is the most well-rounded depth so far. what do you think?
00:23:33
Neel
Yeah, what's funny is that Washington, they look a lot better than the stats say. So they have the fewest bowlers in the top 20 in terms of economy and the second fewest in the top in terms of wickets.
00:23:38
American Over
Hmm.
00:23:44
Neel
Again, Netro Walker is nowhere to be seen on either of those lists.
00:23:44
American Over
Hmm.
00:23:47
Neel
He hasn't played that much, I guess. um So that doesn't look as good. SF kind of middle ah middle of the road. Texas Super Kings are weird where they have reasonably good economy, but they're not taking that many wickets.
00:23:59
Neel
ah So that's it's a little bit unusual. Miami New York, I think, is kind of in the middle. Allinette Reiter's kind of in the middle. Narayan and all kind of decent. I probably would take Seattle Orcas in terms of this lineup, man.
00:24:10
Neel
Like, at three of the top five.
00:24:11
American Over
Yeah.
00:24:12
Neel
I mean, what else are you going to say, man? Yeah.
00:24:16
American Over
I think that's right. i think that's right. And look, like we'll see how this all plays out. Right now, it's really hard to tell. The table, as you said, is all completely balanced.
00:24:23
Neel
Yeah.
00:24:24
American Over
So we'll we'll see what ends up happening.
00:24:26
Neel
So, okay, so speaking of ah bowling, where the heck is Ravi Chandran Ashwin?
00:24:29
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:24:30
Neel
This guy was an SF unicorn. I think he bowled one match, two overs, 24 runs. but that That line will be etched in my brain forever. Where is this guy? like He hasn't bowled at all.
00:24:41
American Over
Okay, so i I just saw an interview of his online on on his YouTube channel.
00:24:45
Neel
Okay.
00:24:47
American Over
And it turns out, there were two interviews, one of them was in Hindi, the other one was in Tamil, which I didn't understand. But it turns out he's not here to play. He's played one match, but what he's really here to do is, I cannot believe I'm about to say this.
00:24:57
Neel
Uh-huh.
00:25:03
American Over
He's here to build San Francisco Unicorns AI model so that they can they can use real-time pitch data and historical information to manage their team both prior to the match to to select lineups and in real time to help the captain select bowlers and the coaches and whatnot to to help even suggest lining length and and shot selection and all of that.
00:25:31
American Over
Cannot believe it. I cannot
00:25:32
Neel
but Hold on. You're telling me that the the SF team is trying to be an AI-powered cricket team. this this This is terminal San Francisco brain. this i Look, what do I expect for throwing in my lot with the San Francisco unicorns? Of course, it's going to be the AI team, right?
00:25:48
Neel
ah ah Hey, you know what? If it works them, it works. ah But that's that's great. i I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish we ah wish we had some more bats ball, man.
00:26:01
American Over
look it's cool that he's here man it's cool that he's here it's cool that he's doing that if if i were him and i were retired and and like have a technical stat minded brain like he does maybe i'd be doing the same thing i expected
00:26:03
Neel
Yeah.
00:26:10
Neel
Yeah.
00:26:13
Neel
You know, if it works, if it works to them, then you know, that this, this could be money ball, you know, this, I mean, money ball is kind of the earlier in incarnation of this.
00:26:17
American Over
It could be Moneyball.
00:26:21
Neel
So it's people can bring money ball to cricket. I mean, Hey, that's, that sounds great.
00:26:26
American Over
Moneyball 2.0.
00:26:26
Neel
We haven't seen many other players missing though.
00:26:26
American Over
No.
00:26:27
Neel
Have we, uh, there's a test series, New Zealand, England, no one missing, uh,
00:26:28
American Over
no
00:26:32
Neel
Sri Lanka, West Indies, not many Sri Lankan players out here, but no one really missing. Right. Although I guess these are tests, right? So you're going to get a different, ah different squads.
00:26:41
American Over
Yeah, I do think that that's true. i mean, there's the in India versus England T20 series. And so you you don't really have any many of those English players here either. But i mean, it's the English summer. So those folks are playing counting cricket. Those folks are playing the hundreds. Like they're they're not they're not coming over here anyway.
00:26:59
American Over
i think if you had it West Indies, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand... Like those are the primary sources for American cricket.
00:27:06
Neel
Yes.
00:27:07
American Over
Anyway, if they had some T20 series or something going on, you might see them prioritize international cricket bilaterals over the MLC. I mean, at the end of the day, here's what I think is going to happen, right?
00:27:17
American Over
i think I think just like the IPL where everybody plans out their internet entire international calendar around that, I think we're going to see people
00:27:23
Neel
Yeah.
00:27:28
American Over
down the line playing around other franchise leagues, and you're going to see the franchise leagues kind of slot in a little bit more naturally over the rest of the year.
00:27:34
Neel
Yes.
00:27:37
American Over
This year, like people I think aren't really planning around the MLC, but you'll probably see that more in the future.
00:27:44
Neel
Well, don't know if they didn't plan around it, but I mean, we haven't really seen that many players missing from, you know, West Indies, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, right?
00:27:52
American Over
That's true.
00:27:53
Neel
So they haven't really done that much.
00:27:53
American Over
That's true.
00:27:56
Neel
The the Nationals haven't done that much ah this summer. It's also kind of a function of, you know, MLC tends to play during a dead period anyway, right? Which is say northern summer, ah southern winter. So They timed it pretty well, right?
00:28:08
Neel
But you got you got to give some credit to the the guys who decided on the the timing of the season. So for whatever reason, it's worked out well.
00:28:13
American Over
Yeah.
00:28:15
Neel
I do think we will see some more ah intentional planning around it. But hey, you know what? Even now, it worked out pretty well.
00:28:22
American Over
Yeah. But it's the Aussie winner, right? And I think that's why you see Aussie and South African winner.
00:28:24
Neel
Yeah.
00:28:26
American Over
So I think that's why you see a ton of those ton of those players here.
00:28:26
Neel
Yeah.
00:28:29
American Over
And then for the West, it's good practice for the CPL. Yeah.
00:28:33
Neel
Totally. All right. So to ah to wrap up, Thru, you found some cool news about the future of the MLC? You want to talk about it?
00:28:40
American Over
I was shocked, but it sounds like Chicago and Toronto are getting good getting some new teams in the next couple of years. I'm i'm really i'm really excited. i think an eight-team table is going to look real good.
00:28:56
American Over
More matches, more maybe even more stadiums. What do you think, Neil?
00:29:02
Neel
Yeah, I think during the off season, we can talk a little bit about kind of the business. like because I've studied a lot of, you know, but baseball, football, other kinds of minor, ah minor kind of alternative leagues.
Expansion Plans for Major League Cricket
00:29:13
Neel
There's a lot of considerations you got to keep in mind when it comes to how do you expand? How do you keep yourself financially sustainable? So we'll talk about that at a later date. I'll say this, this right now, I think MLC showed really good discipline by just kind of focus on having 16 staying small for the first four seasons.
00:29:29
Neel
ah focus on, I don't know the financials, but I mean, so far seems good. They seem to have pretty deep pocketed investors, half of them being, of course, half them are Indo-American billionaires.
00:29:36
American Over
yeah
00:29:38
Neel
um Half of them are literal IPL teams. So they have plenty of funds to kind of keep going for for a little while. And I think the fact they managed to stay good, stay stable, right? If anything, they've expanded in a sense with a kind of new, new cricket stadiums. So, so far of it's looked really good. These two teams, I hope they're on good footing, but I assume they're going to have a similar setup of, you know, local rich guys or, or, or the IPL. So that looks really good. I think the question that remains to be seen is, are they going to get a home stadium?
00:30:10
Neel
It's funny. If you'd asked me before, in terms of which cities would be most likely to get an expansion. One, I would have wanted Philadelphia just because I'm a homer, but you know, there's plenty of Indians out here. That's all I'm saying.
00:30:21
Neel
I would have expected one down in North Carolina because they have that stadium out there. They're not using it right now.
00:30:25
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:30:26
Neel
ah And i would have expected Florida. i mean, there's not as many Indians in either of those places. There's some in North Carolina at least. But you would have I would have thought they would have built around the stadiums that they had. But the fact that they're choosing Chicago and Toronto, both of them being you know huge centers ah for the South Asian diaspora, who is probably powering a lot of this. I think that shows you their strategy is focused you know less around let's go where the stadiums are and more to word let's go where the fan base is. Let's go where the followers are.
00:30:54
Neel
um I think breaking to Canada is a great idea. ah you know This kind of heads off any potential of there being a Canadian T25. right? The kind of expanding, kind of absorbing that. So that sounds great. Those are two very realistic places to go. I mean, look, now you got of the top metro areas America, right You got, and now you got New York, you got LA, you got Chicago, you got ah DMV, you got DFW, you got, you know, you'll you'll have you the Bay Area, you got pretty much all of them.
00:31:17
Neel
So I think it's a great move on their part. um And it is interesting to see that they're not focusing as much on a home stadiums. I think it's going to take a couple more years to see teams playing at the home stadiums. I think we'll keep seeing the traveling circus model, which again, I actually have kind of come around on. We'll talk about that again, a different date.
00:31:36
Neel
Uh, I think we'll see the same model, but I just think expansion is going to keep on being, being good in terms of getting more followers.
00:31:41
American Over
Yeah, I could completely agree. I mean, I'm not sure exactly how they'll compete with the Global T20 Canada League that does exist.
00:31:48
Neel
Yeah.
00:31:49
American Over
um But that league also feels like it's a little bit
00:31:53
Neel
Yeah.
00:31:53
American Over
in flux like they skipped a couple years not not super clear what's going on ownership change um so i think moving the mlc which seems to be a stable as you said stable consistent model even if it's not fully profitable yet i think it makes a ton of sense it makes a ton of sense especially where the gt20 league feels a little bit more like a retirement league like So well you know you've got Yavrad Singh playing in it.
00:31:54
Neel
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:32:03
Neel
Yes.
00:32:16
Neel
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:19
American Over
Come up like come on, guys. So we'll we'll we'll see how that actually turns out. But I'm excited. I'm excited. I think i think these are two great places to to have some have some stadiums, have some teams.
00:32:30
American Over
And ah you know we'll we'll see where the MLC goes next year.
00:32:34
Neel
Yeah, well, Drew, I'm looking forward to another good week of cricket. And see you again next week, man.
00:32:40
American Over
Over and out.
00:32:41
Neel
Over and out.