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Episode 2: Final Over Madness! image

Episode 2: Final Over Madness!

The American Over
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30 Plays18 days ago

This week, Neel and Dhruv are covering Week 2 of the 2026 Major League Cricket (MLC) season. They specifically cover the Texas Super Kings (TSK) vs. the Washington Freedom (WSF), walking through the ups and downs of a tense final over finish. In addition, they discuss MI New York vs. TSK and the topsy-turvy Seattle Orcas (SEO) v SF Unicorns (SFU). Finally, they review the peculiarities of the schedule and playoff picture so far, with an interesting cricket–baseball crossover story at the end.

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Full details for the matches we covered:

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Transcript

The Craziest Cricket Match Ever?

00:00:01
Neel
Welcome back to the American Over, a podcast on cricket in the USA. I'm Neil.
00:00:06
American Over
And I'm through. And Neil, oh my God, did you see that match yesterday?
00:00:10
Neel
That was insane.
00:00:10
American Over
Holy crap.
00:00:11
Neel
that the The finish there, I think pound for pound was the craziest final over, at least. Maybe I've ever seen. Maybe I've ever seen, at least in the last couple of years.
00:00:19
American Over
i i can't think I can't think of a crazier final than than that than that final.
00:00:25
Neel
All right, let's let's let's ah let's go through the numbers and the stats real fast for people. So first innings, right? So Texas Super Kings versus Washington Freedom. So Texas Super Kings put up 185 for four in their 20 overs. And then Washington Freedom come back crazy.
00:00:40
Neel
They win on the last ball with one wicket in hand, by the way. 187 for nine. This is... Like this is the equivalent of bottom of the ninth bases loaded two outs, two strikes, three balls, like down by three, something insane, insane.
00:00:53
American Over
Oh yeah.
00:00:53
Neel
So what a finish. Let's, let's start from the beginning. start with the first innings. What was your take on that when TSK went up to bat?
00:01:00
American Over
Look, this is, it's the classic problem, man. TSK still feels super top

Texas Super Kings' Performance Analysis

00:01:05
American Over
heavy to me. And when someone doesn't perform, others have to pick up the pieces.
00:01:06
Neel
Yeah.
00:01:10
American Over
Like Pfaff. he looked like he wasn't supposed to be there, which is okay. Look, new, new ground, new pitches are, have been really hit and miss all over, right? Some of them have been really low scoring. Some of them have been like this match where one 85 doesn't feel like enough, but also feels like enough at the same time. I don't know.
00:01:28
American Over
Weird. And then you had ah you know, you had the middle over kind of pick it up, right? Yeah. Mukamala, I think, had a great game. I'm really impressed by how he picked it up after the first couple of games.
00:01:39
American Over
And you've been a big fan of Weon Mulder and Donovan Ferreira, man.
00:01:43
Neel
Oh, for sure. So, yeah, I mean, just starting from the beginning, right? So you exit the power play, 33 for one, right? Like, not great, Bob. You know, that's that's that's not very good, right? And as you said, Faf has had, he has some dominating performances the first, I think, two matches.
00:01:58
Neel
um And, you know, it looked he'd be the kind of guy to carry the team on his back. But old man Faf DuPlessis has put up eight off 14 in this match. I think I'm a little more sanguine on the middle order than you are.
00:02:06
American Over
Yeah. Hmm.
00:02:10
Neel
At least I was, I think you've kind of come around to it. Mookamala 37 off 28 Russo 34 off 24. Kumar kind of work when like 13 off 15. ah And then they accelerated at the end. But before we go over that ah you should see these kind of early middle overs, seven, three, two runs off of four, five, six, then they get 19. Then Chowdhury comes on, they get three. We'll talk about that later.
00:02:35
Neel
Uh, 2, 19, sorry, after three, sorry, 14, 8, 5, 7. So very slow, very like kind of weird. And they just turned on the gas at the end, man. They turned on the gas.
00:02:46
Neel
Mulder and Ferreira, the last five overs, they put up 14, 5, 18, 21, and 17. Very, very good finish. And these guys both finished, I think, 44 not out off of like 20, both these guys.
00:02:58
American Over
And that's funny because like, that's pretty funny because I never really saw Weon Mulder as a high intent finishing batsman. I feel like he wants to be, i feel like he can be, but I've never seen him. I, you know, that's just not the energy that I've gotten from him. and It's always felt like he's a great test batter. He'd probably be incredible in ODI, but to see him put numbers up like this, I'm happy for it That's good. That's it's it's hard to shift into that gear, especially so fast.
00:03:27
Neel
Yeah, terrific. I mean, terrific final partnership from him and Ferreira. but So you know imagine your Texas Super Kings, you come in, you finish 15, you're 110 for four. So like a 7.3 run rate.
00:03:38
American Over
Yeah.
00:03:39
Neel
like all right. Right. And then these then these guys come in, and they whack 75 for no loss off the last five.
00:03:43
American Over
Yeah.
00:03:44
Neel
So, you know very, very good performance. You're right intent, absolutely the intent. And you know, you love you love to see these guys who maybe don't get as much recognition, ah kind of make a name for themselves, right and come in at, you know, five and six.
00:03:57
American Over
yeah
00:03:58
Neel
i And put up some good totals.
00:03:58
American Over
I mean, you're with international like you're with international superstars here, right?
00:04:01
Neel
Yeah.
00:04:02
American Over
And Donovan Ferreira is pretty young. Weon Mulder has been just making waves, right?
00:04:07
Neel
Yeah.
00:04:08
American Over
We talked about this last time, almost breaking Brian Lahr's record, right? he is He is... You think about who's going to be the next Fab fab Four. Weon Mulder is probably close to that list, at least.
00:04:19
Neel
I believe it.

Key Bowling Moments by Nikhil Chowdhury

00:04:20
Neel
Hey, let's talk about the bowling here. So, you know, I i think Nikhil Chowdhury, his name's gonna come up again later.
00:04:25
American Over
What a game
00:04:26
Neel
He was great.
00:04:26
American Over
What a game he had, huh?
00:04:27
Neel
Four is of yeah four overs, 29 runs, two wickets. Pretty solid. And it's really funny, if you look at the Manhattan chart, he took a bite out of it, right? So the previous guy bowls for 19. This guy comes in and gets goes for three.
00:04:39
Neel
And then the next guy comes in and goes for 14. This is over seven, eight, nine. So you really see, like, this is where a good high-levered bowler can come in, right? shut down so to use a baseball term a rally right and keep it under control and then you know again molder frere can do some damage but you know you you finish 15 and you're at 110 runs uh there's only so much they can do so that was you know that was a pretty good performance chowdery there to kind of keep it calm in the middle overs there
00:04:51
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:05:06
American Over
Yeah, I'm i'm i'm really, and i think i think TSK, there's two ways to look at this. there's There's a way to look at this where you had some great bowling. And of course you did. You had some good bowling. There's another where they just didn't have any steam in the middle.
00:05:23
American Over
And once Mulder and Ferrer were kind of looking at the scorecard and basically thinking, okay, you know what?
00:05:23
Neel
Yeah.
00:05:24
Neel
Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:30
American Over
We only have five more overs left.
00:05:33
Neel
yeah
00:05:34
American Over
let's just swing for the fences and see what happens. And I think they got, i don't think they got lucky. I think it's, it's quite a bit of skill, but look, when you have some wickets in hand and and you run for it, that's the result you should expect that you want to get.

Challenges for Washington Freedom

00:05:48
Neel
So Oakland's been a slightly lower scoring ground than Grand Prairie Dallas. it'll be the first couple of matches out in into da Dallas. Next batch are on Oakland. i think we're going to finish tonight ah in Oakland. So it's been a relatively lower scoring ground. I think 185 was, I would say, top by 30, 40% of scores that we've had there. So not bad, right? Pretty pretty solid.
00:06:09
Neel
ah
00:06:10
American Over
Yeah.
00:06:10
Neel
Was not enough for the craziness of the second inning. So let's let's go talk about that.
00:06:16
American Over
Oh the second innings. Okay. You had this incredible opening partnership, right? Right at the top. And then Steve Smith forgets that, you know, or I guess he remembers that he's not a T20 batsman and, and, you know, gets out for, for 30 at a, at a decent, I guess, okay strike rate.
00:06:34
American Over
But as soon as he gets out, you see this
00:06:34
Neel
Yeah.
00:06:37
American Over
absolute slowdown.
00:06:39
Neel
Absolutely.
00:06:39
American Over
Mitch Owen is continuing to, you know, Mitch Owen, what a game he had, right? He's just owning that opening partnership and the only limiting factor he had was strike rate. And so you have, you know, you have these guys coming in, right?
00:06:52
American Over
He gets this, he gets this catch dropped by Milam Kumar that to be honest, i I don't know if you saw that, Neil, I felt like he should have caught that. It really looked like, yeah it was, it was a tough chance.
00:07:00
Neel
I've never seen that. Yeah.
00:07:03
American Over
You know, it was like, I guess it wasn't a sitter, But he really should have held on to that. I don't know. um But then you've got these guys coming in, right? Like, you look at you look at right as right as Steve Smith gets out, Chapman comes in, and Chapman has two choices.
00:07:19
Neel
Mm-hmm.
00:07:20
American Over
He can either hit out or get out, or he can rotate rotate the strike back to Mitch Owen. And he chooses to hit out and get out, which is – look – I think people have different opinions on that. I think if you're yeah if you have high intent batting, you're going to fail sometimes. And I think your goal should be to hit out and get out. Maybe you pace a chase differently, but it's not a huge deal. And then you have a House come in and he does a decent, he does a better job of of getting strike back ah back out to to

Final Over Drama: Akil Hossein's Hat Trick

00:07:54
American Over
Owen. But look, like once he gets out and he he kind of edges it back to the keeper,
00:08:01
American Over
That's when the match gets really interesting. At that point, formerly known as Goose, yeah.
00:08:03
Neel
Yeah, House. Formerly known as Goose, by the way.
00:08:08
American Over
Yeah. i
00:08:09
Neel
It's Andre's House. Yes, it's Dutch names. No, yeah, but like when he got out, but because because, you know, when I was following, they kept the target pretty well within sight, right?
00:08:15
American Over
Yeah.
00:08:18
American Over
Yeah.
00:08:19
Neel
Most of the time, right? Like after 10 overs, you need 74 off 60. That's not that bad. But yeah, I mean, like House gets out. It looks like they're just hitting a wall.
00:08:30
American Over
it was like rough. I don't remember the exact number, but it was something like 60 off 33. Not impossible.
00:08:36
Neel
I see 62 off 42 point, 59 off after
00:08:40
American Over
Yeah, there you go There you go. um So not impossible by any means, right? That's less than a 200 strike rate, hit like 170, give or take. um But that's not, it's not easy given the way that they were seeing that striking, right?
00:08:56
American Over
And you had Mokamala take the gloves too. And so i thought Donovan Ferrer would come on and, We're going to talk about that match in a second, but you know maybe maybe maybe Texas could have made some better bowling choices, but then Nikhil Chaudhry sticks around, and then you end up with this last over. You want to talk about this, Neil?
00:09:16
Neel
This is crazy. all right. So again, they kept the target relatively well within kind of striking and distance. So required run rate, the last over, the last couple overs is like eight to 10. So they come in, they need six off six, right? So they they do do a pretty good job, right? Like they were staring down the barrel of like an 11 plus required run rate. So to get down to six off six, pretty solid.
00:09:36
Neel
Okay. So Akil Hossein walks in. This guy, this guy gets Marco Yansen out. Ponzio comes on, he's out for a golden duck.
00:09:48
Neel
And then Asif Mahmoud comes out. this man This man gets out as well. You got a hat trick. You got a hat trick with 19.4 overs gone with like, what was it like six runs in hand?
00:09:54
American Over
a hat trick in the last over. Yeah.
00:10:00
Neel
Insane, insane. And then of course, I think i think a lot of people can probably saw the last the last bit here, right? So Chowdhury comes off with a walk off six ah to secure the win.
00:10:13
Neel
So just imagine the imagine imagine the fans, right? Like, if you just got a hat trick taken against you.
00:10:20
American Over
yeah
00:10:20
Neel
You're down to your you're you're down like your're your number 11 guys in. i mean, Chaudhary obviously gets the strike then. To come off with a six to win the game, can you imagine? I feel bad for poor Akeel Hossein. This man gets a hat trick and then he loses in the same over.
00:10:35
American Over
it was I mean, that was a crazy overwrite.
00:10:38
Neel
Yeah.
00:10:39
American Over
Like, first of all, Akil, as you said, just cleans up the tail.
00:10:43
Neel
Yeah.
00:10:43
American Over
He goes in again with a great, great ball that Lockheed decides, unlike a certain David Miller we know, to take the run.
00:10:47
Neel
Yeah.
00:10:52
Neel
Oh my god.
00:10:53
American Over
and and And it's what we were talking about earlier.
00:10:53
Neel
Yeah.
00:10:55
American Over
He gave the man in form the strike.
00:10:58
Neel
Yes.
00:10:59
American Over
Nikhil Chaudhary comes on. Nikhil says, okay I can take this. I can take this responsibility. And look, if he misses, whatever, hard-fought game, right? But he connects. And just, you know, I can't i can't imagine the pressure.
00:11:14
American Over
i can't imagine, ah you know, how exciting, how invigorating that must be. So much confidence. These are all young players, right?
00:11:20
Neel
Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:22
American Over
Nikhil Chaudhry just debuted for Australia against Bangladesh a month ago. in T20s, right? like these These guys are, they the MLC, I think, is great for getting some of these folks game time with these stars.
00:11:36
American Over
I'm really impressed.
00:11:37
Neel
yeah listen, I would have loved to spend an entire podcast talking about the penultimate ball. So Jose, Jose to Ferguson, as you discussed, right? So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was, they made an appeal and it ended up being, i think, umpires call, uh, whether or not that was an LBW.
00:11:52
Neel
ah
00:11:53
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:11:54
Neel
And what happened, so, you know, almost, right? You can imagine alternate universe where he's off by like an an inch and then he gets four wickets off four balls and the game's over.
00:12:02
American Over
Yeah.
00:12:04
Neel
So that could have happened.
00:12:04
American Over
Yeah.
00:12:05
Neel
They got the, you know, like, you know, if the umpire given a different decision on the field, that then of course we're in that parallel universe.
00:12:05
American Over
Yeah.
00:12:11
Neel
And then, as you said, if Ferguson doesn't have the presence of mind to take the run while everyone's out here standing around and, you know, appealing, then Chalde doesn't get on strike and he doesn't get a chance to win.
00:12:22
Neel
Like, Do you want to go over the Miller thing? I think that's very instructive, actually.
00:12:26
American Over
yeah I mean, this is like, First of all, as they say, everything's happening in this over, right?
00:12:31
Neel
Yeah, yeah.
00:12:32
American Over
But the David Miller thing was really interesting, right? Like Delhi Capitals versus Gujarat Titans in this past IPL. If you have Kuldeep Yadav on one end, who's not, you know, he's a bowler.
00:12:44
American Over
He's not an all-rounder. He's not a batsman. Like he's actually not even a good runner. um and And then you have David Miller, Killer Miller on one end, right? South African like aficionado. And so you're you're basically looking at these guys and you're thinking, okay,
00:12:59
American Over
David Miller should have the strike. And, you know, you've got you've got whatever, i think it was like 10 or 12 runs left.
00:13:03
Neel
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes.
00:13:08
American Over
Like david David Miller can kind of can capture this at the beginning of the opening. you You get through, David Miller hits hits a few you know few good strikes. You get it down to you need two to win from two.
00:13:21
American Over
The smart thing to do to guarantee you don't lose is no matter what happens, you take the run and put Kulip on strike. The other smart thing to do is that you have the actual batsman on strike, and no matter what happens, you give the ball to to David Miller. And what happened in this case is ah David Miller hit it, didn't take the single, and then kept the strike and couldn't connect on the next ball.
00:13:54
American Over
And so they lost. They lost by one run in a way that they shouldn't have lost. And look, the problem is that I think you could have agreed with both strategies.
00:14:06
American Over
I think you absolutely could have sat there and said, you know what, if it were Nikhil Jadri in that situation and and he had to turn over the strike to Lockie, I just think the math has to change when you're at one run left.
00:14:06
Neel
Yeah.
00:14:21
American Over
You know, you've got you've got one run and, ah you know, you're going to lose by one or two or something like that. ah Because, and you honestly, These are all international cricketers. Anyone can hit a single.
00:14:34
American Over
Whereas with Lockie and Nikhil Chaudhry over here, I think they did the smart thing. Like Lockie's probably not hitting a six.
00:14:43
Neel
No.
00:14:43
American Over
Nikhil, I mean, he did it. He ended the game.
00:14:45
Neel
Yeah.
00:14:45
American Over
So just really interesting to see that last ball strategy.
00:14:46
Neel
And that that's, i mean, good time, good teamwork, good communication. Right. And, uh, they, they set it up perfectly. They set it up perfectly.
00:14:56
Neel
So I, I really think you could, you could do books on that last over.
00:14:56
American Over
Yeah.
00:15:01
Neel
You could do books on that. So very, very exciting.
00:15:03
American Over
Yeah.
00:15:04
Neel
Very, very exciting. I mean, this this is at like one 30 in the morning or something, right. Eastern time.
00:15:08
American Over
Yeah.
00:15:09
Neel
ah they They got some weird timings for MLC, man.
00:15:09
American Over
Yeah.
00:15:12
Neel
ah But.
00:15:14
American Over
I don't blame them, man.
00:15:15
Neel
But.
00:15:16
American Over
I don't blame them. West Coast competing with the World Cup. It is what it is.
00:15:21
Neel
but let's ah Let's talk about another match that thought was pretty fun. MI New York at Texas Super Kings. So this one was a low-scoring thriller. So think MI comes out 127 off 9.
00:15:35
Neel
And then TSK just cruises to 132 off 4. So, you know, pretty easy batting situation. I just want to talk about the bowling. Man, look at Look at this.
00:15:46
Neel
Donovan Ferreira, right? This guy's line, four overs, one maiden. By the way, unheard of. 14 runs, three wickets. Like these these these are figures you'd expect to see in a test match.
00:15:58
Neel
Like but like like good figures from test match, right?
00:16:00
American Over
Yeah.
00:16:00
Neel
Like this is unheard of. This guy, he he does a wicket maiden, gets Nicholas Porin.
00:16:07
American Over
Insane.
00:16:08
Neel
Earlier, he got Quinton Dukak and Kyron Pollard in the same over at the cost of three runs. Like, this is insane. this This guy, so I didn't know this, but apparently he's a wicket keeper too, right?
00:16:21
American Over
Yeah.
00:16:22
Neel
This guy, this guy, Donovan Ferrer, I think he's the Shohei Otani of cricket. He can bat. He bet he he put 44 off of 20 or something like that. He bowled terrifically in this match.
00:16:34
Neel
And then he keeps wicket too, which makes you actually wonder, where was he in last night's match?
00:16:41
American Over
I don't know. i genuinely don't know. I i think Ferrar could have been a game changer for for the match.
00:16:44
Neel
Yep.
00:16:47
Neel
Yeah, bring him into ball. I mean, that that could have swung the game right there. I mean, it was a game of inches.
00:16:51
American Over
Yeah.
00:16:51
Neel
I think.
00:16:53
American Over
And look, this was a stickier pitch, right? Like the the New York TSK match was it was definitely a stickier pitch.
00:16:55
Neel
Yeah.
00:16:57
Neel
Yeah.
00:16:59
American Over
ah Ball was gripping a little bit more. it was definitely, you know, as you, I mean, obviously it was a lot lower scoring and even then it was kind of close, right? um Texas cruised, but like it wasn't, it wasn't like they were, you know, they ended the match in 10 overs or 15 overs or something like that.
00:17:16
Neel
No, yeah.
00:17:17
American Over
um So I think Ferreira, Maybe, you know, maybe he would have struggled on the flatter pitch that that we saw earlier. But talent like that, especially when you see it, I don't i don't think you want to keep it hidden.
00:17:30
American Over
At least throw him the ball for a bit.
00:17:32
Neel
Yeah. No, I think TSK could have, they could have away with that one if they put him in. So other other numbers were all pretty good for TSK bowling, by the way.
00:17:42
Neel
So Adam Milne is four overs, 22 runs, two wickets. Ahimanyu Lumba, 18 runs, one wicket, four overs.
00:17:46
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:17:50
Neel
Really, really good bowling performance out there. I think you were mentioning that, you know, you can't really tell which of the various pitches they're they're using out Oakland, the various drop-in pitches. They do seem to have different personalities, don't they?
00:18:01
American Over
They really do. this was a much, I mean, we were talking about this is a much more tiki-tiki pitch, like a lot more, you know, you were seeing the ball gripping a lot more, you were seeing you were seeing bowlers just have a substantial advantage, which you wouldn't expect at a small ground, um especially in the MLC and honestly in T20 formats where they want they want flatter pitches because people want to see some hit sixes hit.
00:18:06
Neel
Yeah.
00:18:17
Neel
Yeah.
00:18:22
Neel
Yeah. yeah yeah
00:18:26
American Over
But my hot take is that I want to see close games. And if it's hard to bat, I think that's interesting. If if the bowlers can... can genuinely make a difference rather than they accidentally get a wicket. I think that's interesting. um And so you know I think there is definitely a balance to strike, and I'd rather see closer games than not.
00:18:46
Neel
So speaking of ah the opposite of that, like it was a close match. What was a slugfest? Let's talk about Seattle Orcas and SF unicorns. So Seattle all out, by the way, for one 91 and then ah SF universe come back and get it one 92 for eight.
00:18:53
American Over
Oh, yeah.
00:19:00
Neel
They win very, very late in the game.
00:19:00
American Over
Yeah.
00:19:01
Neel
So that was really exciting. Exciting slugfest. ah What was your take?
00:19:07
American Over
Yeah, it was interesting like to see Seifert, Shayan Jahangir, and even Bretzky, just that that that high intent, top heavy game that these guys continue to play.
00:19:17
Neel
Yes. Yes.
00:19:19
American Over
I mean, look, I think T20 has changed. I think especially franchise T20, that's the game that we're playing now. um And you see whether it's Vephub Suryavanchi in the IPL, um or even it's Rohit Sharma from a couple of years ago,
00:19:26
Neel
yes
00:19:35
American Over
Tim Seifert, Finn Allen, these guys took that to heart in in ah the World Cup earlier this year, and you're seeing the results now. Shannon Jahangir kind of keeping up with, the and it in fact, and obviously exceeding Tim Seifert over the last MLC has been just truly incredible. And even Bretzky's out there, you know, kind of it hitting hitting for the fences. um i would have thought,
00:19:59
American Over
that they had enough, to be honest. I think they had a, you know, I know they they were all out by the last over, but given what we had seen from the rest of that ground, like I i genuinely thought they would have had enough and I guess they didn't.
00:20:02
Neel
Yeah.
00:20:13
Neel
Yeah, i just I just want to talk quickly about the difference between the pitches because we alluded to it earlier. So let me just check the numbers here.

Impact of Pitch Conditions in Dallas and Oakland

00:20:20
Neel
But Dallas, I mean, you said last time it was a highway, and I think that is absolutely, absolutely the case.
00:20:23
American Over
Yeah.
00:20:25
Neel
So look at this. Of the various many innings we've had so far, seven of the eight highest scoring innings were in Dallas. And then six of the seven lowest scoring were in Oakland.
00:20:37
Neel
So, you know, very, very different behaviors. And, you know, obviously different pitches vary, but you look at the environment.
00:20:40
American Over
ye
00:20:42
Neel
I mean, there you go. So yeah, 191 put on the board by the Seattle Orcas. You would think that's plenty. You think that's plenty, right?
00:20:48
American Over
Yeah, I mean, look, there were missed opportunities, right? Hetmeier, Stoinis, they have, these guys have seemed out of form for like forever.
00:20:57
Neel
Yeah.
00:20:58
American Over
I can't even think of like them being form in the last year or so. Pretty surprising. Dustin Shonica, I think is another one of those where he should have been more in form.
00:21:11
American Over
But it happens, right? It happens. Even then, these guys got to a decent score because you had such a strong start. That's the value, I think, of that of that really high intent, really strong start, especially in the power play where you have a little bit more leeway to do it.
00:21:23
Neel
Yeah.
00:21:24
American Over
um But then you have Brody Couch.
00:21:28
Neel
That he had some weird figures, man, but he was effective.
00:21:28
American Over
What a mess.
00:21:31
Neel
He was effective for four overs, 41 runs, not cheap, three wickets, but big contributor, man, big contributor.
00:21:40
American Over
or the match, right? Because of the second innings.
00:21:41
Neel
Yeah.
00:21:42
American Over
Tell us about it.
00:21:44
Neel
Yeah. He gets, he gets Britska too, which i think, I think that was also a big turning point out there.
00:21:48
American Over
Yeah.
00:21:49
Neel
Yeah. Hetmeier and Briska, same same over, by the way. So that, like, you could argue that kind of cooled off the hot start, you know, had them lead to maybe a, you know, good, but not insurmountable total.
00:21:56
American Over
Yeah. I think so.
00:22:01
Neel
So the the chase, I enjoyed that chase. I enjoyed that chase. You will know I am the biggest fan of young man, L'Ouangere Pretorius.
00:22:11
American Over
Yeah.
00:22:11
Neel
This kid, 87 off 39, 220 strike rate. This kid, I think he turned 20 like three months ago.
00:22:17
American Over
What?
00:22:18
Neel
Inc. Incredible, incredible. And i think it was interesting if you look at the scorecard, right? So this guy gets 87 off 39, his partner, Finn Allen gets a duck off of two balls.
00:22:28
American Over
Sad.
00:22:29
Neel
Uh, so, you know, you're not seeing much there. I would really expect it, but I expect it better from Finn Allen. But here's the thing. If you set the table that well with the laundry, Pretorius, you kind of keep it within striking distance. And then you just need to have Brody couch pop off the last couple of overs. And there you go. You've chased it.
00:22:45
American Over
And this is what we're talking about, right? Like, and i know we were complaining a little bit about top heavy teams last year.
00:22:47
Neel
Yeah.
00:22:50
Neel
Yeah.
00:22:51
American Over
think we're seeing it. Maybe it's not that bad. if it Maybe it's not that bad, right? If you have people like Hasan Khan, Xavier Bartlett, I'm just looking at this, Aaron Hardy in particular, keep the strike going.
00:23:02
American Over
But you've got this incredible start at the beginning. And, you know, I mean, if you look at even Pretorius, like he's watching his partners go and fail, but he's keeping the acceleration because he's set, he's in.
00:23:12
Neel
yeah yes
00:23:15
American Over
And then you just need someone else to finish, right? Like you need one other person to stand up, maybe two other people to stand up. And Brody Couch, our player of the match, boy, did he do that.
00:23:26
Neel
Yeah. Yeah. I think the top heaviness, I know we complained about it. I think we complained about, I think TSK in particular, ah having a very top heavy lineup, but I think we're seeing a lot of teams have this, right?
00:23:31
American Over
Yep. Yep.
00:23:35
Neel
The structure generally on the batting side of the ball, at least is like you have one or two superstars at the top. And you know, a lot of the famous international guys are out of form. So, you know, I think if you can set the table well with those guys, you have enough, you know, maybe people who haven't gotten as much recognition as I suppose they deserve.
00:23:44
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:23:53
Neel
But you kind of keep it close. Let your all-rounders, ah you know, in the middle orders and middle middle and the end of the game, right? But then come in and finish it off, right? And i think that might be an interesting structure of like big names at the top, you know, guys, all-rounders can do the job well towards the end.
00:24:09
Neel
It's a different shape, right? Then let's say maybe even the IPL where you can just kind of, you can have so you can slug down to number seven, number eight. Here, maybe not necessarily, but it leads to a different shape um of the innings, which I think is really interesting.
00:24:16
American Over
Oh yeah.
00:24:20
American Over
Oh yeah. Yeah. And I mean, like, look, like quick wickets from Dusk and Shanika, like cause what feel like a collapse. Right. And then you you kind of pick it back up.
00:24:33
Neel
Yeah.
00:24:33
American Over
It's just one of these types of matches are are just so fun because of, because of exactly what you're saying. Right. Like, you will you need someone to be able to get you back on track.
00:24:44
American Over
and someone like Brody Couch, mean, he did, that's what he did. That's what he did.
00:24:48
Neel
Yeah.
00:24:48
American Over
even and And the top heaviness is basically your life preserver, right? but if you Because if you think about like how chases were traditionally paced and the the strategy came from ODI, right? It's, hey, look, like we can't lose wickets too fast.
00:25:01
American Over
And so you have an anchor.
00:25:01
Neel
Yes.
00:25:03
American Over
You have Virat Goli is one of the most famous anchors, right? And someday he gets roasted for being, you know, ah for his strike rate nowadays but someone like a Vedat like a KL these guys learned how to anchor chases from ODI the game has changed and ah you don't sometimes you need anchors and famously Vedat in the 2024 World Cup was that anchor but sometimes man hit out get out and just play that like
00:25:38
American Over
and And you know what, maybe Baz McCollum somewhere is smiling, but like that this is just how you have to play the game.
00:25:45
Neel
Yeah, it does make you fear a little bit for Test cricket as a Test cricket enjoyer, as a strong ardent supporter. Like if people forget how to be anchors, is that a good thing? Maybe not, but that's a different story.

The Importance of Tournament Standings and Seeding

00:25:59
Neel
hey Hey, you know, speaking of parody, I want to talk about the standings a little bit, get away from the games, talk about that. So it's actually really funny. We have a lot of parody. So we have six teams, five of the teams have two wins. TSK has three.
00:26:13
Neel
And so and four of the teams are actually playing 500 ball as in the same number of wins and losses.
00:26:13
American Over
Wow. Mm-hmm.
00:26:17
Neel
You only have one team with a winning record, that's Seattle, and one with a losing record. so sorry One that's winning is LA, one with a losing record, which is Seattle. So extreme parity, right? And we'll talk about the the playoff format in a bit.
00:26:30
Neel
But basically what happens, right, is all these teams are basically playing very similarly, similar lineups, close games, which I think we all love. And it all will end up coming down to the net run rate. So you want to talk about that a little bit, about how that tiebreaker will work?
00:26:44
American Over
Yeah, I mean, look, people talk a lot about the auction format, but when it works, it works, right?
00:26:49
Neel
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:51
American Over
I'd rather have, we talked about this earlier, I'd much rather have close games than not. um But yeah, net net revenue retention, it's just drastic.
00:26:56
Neel
Yeah.
00:27:00
Neel
Net revenue retention.
00:27:00
American Over
it like
00:27:00
Neel
Bro, your startup is showing.
00:27:02
American Over
Oh my God, net revenue retention. Oh my God, net run rate.
00:27:05
Neel
That's going to be a clip. I need a clip that put on Instagram, man.
00:27:06
American Over
I'm looking, that's so funny.
00:27:07
Neel
No, no, no. ah Net run rate.
00:27:08
American Over
I'm looking at NRR, net run rate, my God.
00:27:09
Neel
Sorry. Yeah. I know. I know. I also read it. Anyway, net run rate.
00:27:12
American Over
ah
00:27:13
Neel
but That's, that's, that's, anyway, net run rate.
00:27:15
American Over
i
00:27:16
Neel
Right.
00:27:16
American Over
Yeah.
00:27:16
Neel
So basically it's just like, you know, ah you know, your run rate minus your opponent's run rate. The main thing being, if you run out of wickets, you are charged the full 20 overs. Right.
00:27:25
American Over
Yep.
00:27:26
Neel
So basically the spread is like one or two points of NRR. And that's not that much, right?
00:27:31
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:27:32
Neel
Like if you do, like if you win a game by 20 runs, that's just the whole point of NRR basically right there. ah but It depends how it do.
00:27:39
American Over
A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
00:27:40
Neel
But like, you know, basically that that's how it works, right? So it's going to be very close.
00:27:44
American Over
Yeah. And with how few teams there are and how close it is, I'm genuinely concerned about how ah how many of these will be decided by NRR.
00:27:46
Neel
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:56
Neel
I mean, that's fun though, right? Because, you know, one problem I have with a lot of, you know, sporting events is that if you're losing, who cares, right?
00:28:05
American Over
if
00:28:05
Neel
You lose by 10, you lose by 20, who cares? But here when everything I think in the end is going to be decided by NRR, like that means every ball matters, right? Even if you're hopelessly dead lost, at least you to try and salvage that NRR a bit, right?
00:28:13
American Over
Every ball matters.
00:28:17
American Over
Yeah, that's true.
00:28:18
Neel
And even then little things, right?
00:28:18
American Over
Because it's not like last year. It's our good.
00:28:20
Neel
Yeah. No, no, good, good.
00:28:23
American Over
it even like And it's unlike last year where Seattle was just blowing it the whole time, right?
00:28:27
Neel
Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:27
American Over
And they they were just completely losing.
00:28:28
Neel
Yeah.
00:28:29
American Over
Whereas like this year, you ah it's a lot more evenly matched. And so anyone, look, there's four four playoff spots. There's five teams. any Anyone can win.
00:28:41
Neel
Yeah, so let me explain the playoff format.
00:28:41
American Over
Yeah.
00:28:43
Neel
So it's it's an interesting one. You would think that would be, oh, four teams, like, you know, one and four play, two and three play. Not that simple. So what happens is, this is my understanding, because the format's kind of changed a little bit.
00:28:51
American Over
Mm-hmm.
00:28:55
Neel
ah My understanding is qualifiers, a team one and two play, and then there's the eliminator, so team three and four play. So the winner of the qualifier moves on to the finals automatically. And then you have kind of a redemption round where the loser of the one and two match and the winner of the three and four match ah play. Then the winner of that goes on to the finals. So basically, this is why seeding matters so much, right? If you're a top two, you need one win and you're in.
00:29:18
Neel
If you're three or four, you need two wins and you're in, right? And five and six, of course, you go home. So I think what we might see towards the end will be really exciting is, you know, Oh, ah you know, we might win the match, but, you know, we need to you know, we need to get like 20 runs in this over to be able to sneak into the playoffs or to go from three seed to two seed. And that's going to make some very, very exciting cricket ah in the last, let's say a couple of weeks of the season.
00:29:42
American Over
Oh, yeah, I'm super psyched for it. I really like this format. I know it's controversial, but I personally really like it. yeah IPL and some of the other T20 franchise leagues have ah similar formats.
00:29:54
American Over
I just think you should be rewarded for being top of the table.
00:29:57
Neel
Yeah.
00:29:58
American Over
Maybe less so in a smaller table like this one, but some of these larger tables. And once the MLC grows, I think you should be rewarded to be top of the table. I love it
00:30:07
Neel
There's a bit of a weird discontinuity between two seed and three seed. Like one and two doesn't only make a difference. And then three and four doesn't make a difference, but two versus three makes a huge difference.
00:30:13
American Over
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:30:14
Neel
So that's a little bit weird. I mean, there's only so much you can do, right? with ah with with the table like this, but yeah, I think it's a cool format. And i'm I'm excited to see there and be there for the finals. So, all right, so let's, ah let's look ahead a little bit.
00:30:27
Neel
So we'll have, so we're going to finishing up in Oakland, I think today, then we head to Pomona for a couple of matches. We actually go back to Dallas. i think we forgot that last week, go back to Dallas, looking forward to some 300 run innings or whatever crazy stuff's going to happen out there. And then Oakland for the playoffs. um So that should be interesting.
00:30:43
Neel
You noticed something interesting, right? Which was TSK has played like six games. I think LA has played three, like, what's what's going on there, man?
00:30:48
American Over
Yeah.
00:30:52
American Over
It's weird, right? Because like you see TSK at the top of the table, but so much of that is just because they've played literally double the games of l a um And
00:30:56
Neel
Yeah.
00:30:58
Neel
Yeah.
00:31:00
Neel
Yeah, I mean, they're, they're, they're like, yeah, they're playing 500 ball, they just happened to have had one more game.
00:31:07
American Over
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like you said, la is the only one with a winning record. That doesn't make any sense for them to be at the bottom.
00:31:11
Neel
Yeah. No.
00:31:14
American Over
But it's, I thought it was, is it not that they're trying to get people to play home field advantage, right? to to To get the crowds out, like Dallas will play more, or Texas will play more in Dallas.
00:31:27
American Over
SF will play more in Oakland. Is that not the case?
00:31:30
Neel
that That's what I thought. But then I looked in the numbers. ah It's actually not the case. So in Dallas, so TSK played three, LA played two in Dallas. Like, okay, that kind of makes sense, right?
00:31:40
Neel
Maybe they play more games because it's their home stadium.
00:31:43
American Over
Uh-huh.
00:31:43
Neel
Oakland, then TSK played three, LA played two. In Pomona, then LA plays three, TSK plays two. So I kind of see it. But then you go back to Dallas, and now LA is playing three matches, and TSK is playing two matches. So there's not there's not really any correlation between, oh we're playing in Dallas, so Texas plays more.
00:31:59
Neel
maybe a little correlation in in Pomona and SoCal, but really what happened is just they just front-loaded the schedule for TSK and back-loaded it for l LA, ah which just strikes me as really strange.
00:32:12
Neel
like he yeah Now, you know they're fortunate that now they have ah three stadiums right that are kind of home stadiums for three of the teams, but you're still not really seeing any correlation between like you know these guys are the home team, they're going to play more matches here.
00:32:27
American Over
Weird.
00:32:27
Neel
when you kind of have the traveling circus set up of everyone just kind of moves from one city to the next, to the next, I get that that's kind of difficult, but I would kind of want to see that transition to more, you know, we're going fly over, play a match, fly somewhere else, play a match.
00:32:39
Neel
Team does a homestand team does a road trip. It may be, it's more possible once all six teams have a home stadium and we talk more about this in in later or weeks, but you know, I would like to see some progress towards that.
00:32:52
American Over
I wonder if it's a cost thing or even a scheduling thing, for example,
00:32:56
Neel
Probably. Yeah.
00:32:57
American Over
I noticed we haven't really seen Chandranash win play for, you know, SF, except for that one match where he bowled like an over.
00:33:01
Neel
Yeah.
00:33:07
American Over
um
00:33:08
Neel
Two overs to 24. Remember that?
00:33:09
American Over
Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:10
Neel
Yeah.
00:33:10
American Over
That's right. Yeah. got absolutely washed.
00:33:11
Neel
yeah Imagine that's his entire line for the entire season.
00:33:14
American Over
so I was, i was thinking like, maybe it's got to do with scheduling, but I, I don't know.
00:33:18
Neel
Yeah.
00:33:20
American Over
You decide these well in advance. So I, I don't know.
00:33:22
Neel
Yeah. All right. let's ah You had a fun story for for us to finish up want talk about it?

Liam Plunkett's Transition to Baseball

00:33:28
American Over
Okay, 2019 World Cup winner with England, Liam Plunkett. Incredible bowler, just you know great test lines, great ODI lines, maybe less so in T20, but you know just incredibly talented bowler.
00:33:44
American Over
Moves to the U.S. and starts cricket academy. Incredibly successful cricket academy, not that far from actually where where you grew up, Westchester, Pennsylvania. um Yeah, and you know I'm ah incredibly cool to see someone
00:33:52
Neel
No kidding.
00:33:58
American Over
you know move their family over to the US from from England and and just decide to support and grow American cricket. And then he does something weird.
00:34:09
American Over
He is now a minor league baseballer for the Oakland Ballers.
00:34:17
Neel
Yeah, so incredible.
00:34:17
American Over
What? no
00:34:18
Neel
OK, so let me just let just explain. I've been waiting for this day forever where I can use my baseball knowledge to talk about cricket. This is great. So yeah, so OK, so there's actually ah's actually a lot of backstories. It's actually very appropriate for cricket.
00:34:31
Neel
So yeah, so Oakland ballers play for the Pioneer League. So this is an independent minor league. So basically, you know you have minor leagues that are affiliated with like the MLB, right? So you have like the Philadelphia Phillies have a triple A team, double A team, singlet, whatever, right?
00:34:43
Neel
ah This is different. This is an independent league, the Oakland ballers. So this guy has played one game. He threw his line was 0.1 inning pitched one strikeout. This man stood up through five pitches, struck a guy out and sat back down.
00:34:56
Neel
So he had about the smallest of debuts possible, but he did pitch well. He pitched well for himself. I think he technically started the game, which is kind of funny. Uh, So good job, Liam Plunkett. The interesting kind of context is that the Oakland Athletics, right, baseball team out in Oakland, quite infamously left and moved to Las Vegas.
00:35:16
Neel
That is also interestingly why the Oakland Coliseum is so available for cricket. Because the A's are gone. And basically the ballers, ah you know, the A's or the B's, this independent team started up in Oakland basically to fill the gap by the major league team moving away.
00:35:32
American Over
Mm-hmm. Wow.
00:35:34
Neel
think they also played the Oakland Coliseum, I think. Uh, so what's funny is, okay. MLC is taking advantage of the A's going out. And then this cricketer comes and joins the very team that is quote unquote, replacing the Oakland baseball team out in Oakland.
00:35:50
Neel
Uh, I, I kind I don't, I forget this is a home game and or our away game, but it could just be kind of funny. Imagine Liam Plunkett throwing some, some bullpen sessions and then the cricketers come out to meet him, you know?
00:36:01
American Over
That's so funny.
00:36:01
Neel
Uh, what a, what a, what an image, right? Uh, um You think batting or bowling? Like, could you see it? I could see cricket players like kind of coming over to play minor cricket, baseball or vice versa, right?
00:36:15
American Over
Yeah, another harry another English cricketer, Harry Brook, i came out to the Cardinals, actually, a few years ago.
00:36:22
Neel
Really?
00:36:23
American Over
And he you know he wasn't serious about joining their team, but he was he was playing with them. And obviously, Harry Brook is an incredibly accomplished cricketer. ah He picked up baseball batting.
00:36:35
American Over
decently well pretty fast.
00:36:36
Neel
Yeah.
00:36:37
American Over
I mean, look, it was a 16 minute video, so who knows how long like the actual the actual time was, but he's picking really fast with them. um And I personally think batting is probably a lot more transferable, right?
00:36:50
American Over
there's There's a couple of big things like the action for bowling. is just so different. Pitching and bowling are not the same thing. The ball is structured differently, right? Like the way you manage the seam is differently or is different. um Even just the leather ball getting softer over time, whereas baseballs get replaced. Like this entire strategy is totally different, but forget all of that.
00:37:16
American Over
Biomechanically, your
00:37:17
Neel
Yes. Yes. Yeah.
00:37:19
American Over
bowling action and your pitching action are drastically different and success criteria are different the world record for ah bowling in in cricket is showing up there 161 uh kilometers per hour just about 100 miles an hour which is a good but not near the record of a of a baseball pitch um i mean even just like the lengths are different trying to bounce the ball or pitch the ball versus, you know, just the way you're pitching.
00:37:47
Neel
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:37:49
American Over
I think it's just drastically different. I'm shocked to see Liam Plunkett, you know, pitching 70 miles an hour, decently successful.
00:37:54
Neel
Yeah.
00:37:59
Neel
That actually makes it even more impressive, right? That like, i think you're right, bowling to pitching is not, I mean, you need arm strength in both cases, but it's just such a different, such a different kind of thing. And not to mention, half of of pitching is like learning your stuff is knowing how to throw a curveball, a seam or whatever, right?
00:38:14
Neel
Very, very impressive. But yeah, I wonder, maybe we'll see more crossover. I mean we got a lot of rugby players from Australia, Samoa, come play NFL. We got soccer kickers um who are, well, kickers, right, in the NFL. So it could be interesting. I could see some cool kind of crossover.
00:38:29
Neel
So anyway, Theruv, I'm looking forward to the next week of cricket. should be ah Should be another fun week out in the MLC.
00:38:37
American Over
I'm incredibly excited. There's a ton going on. I'm going to hop off and watch Ireland beat India again. And hopefully India beat Australia in this world cup World Cup group stage.
00:38:50
American Over
But anyway, it's been fun, Neil.
00:38:51
Neel
Exciting.
00:38:52
American Over
Thank Over and out.
00:38:53
Neel
Over and out. See you.