Boult nullifies Hassan Khan's stirring spell as MINY knock out SFU

Trent Boult followed his bowling exploits (2-19) with perhaps his most crucial batting performance in the format as MI New York prevailed against San Francisco Unicorns in a see-sawing, low-scoring thriller in Dallas. With that, last year's finalists are knocked out while MINY face Texas Super Kings in the Challenger on Friday.

Boult entered the scene with his team needing 25 off 22, but the momentum was with Unicorns thanks to a stirring spell of bowling from Hassan Khan. The left-arm spinner bowled two double-wicket overs to turn the tables on the inaugural champions before Boult went face-to-face with him and returned the favour. In the penultimate over, Hassan chose to bowl short and quick at the No. 9. Boult summoned all his experience and carted two big, successive sixes over deep mid wicket to sway the game back in his team's favour. Sensible batting in the final over, where four runs were needed, took MINY through to what was their first-ever win over SFU in MLC history.

Before the game got to a point where Boult's batting had to come to MINY's rescue, it swung wildly in the direction of both the teams. For large parts of the first innings, MINY perhaps already had their name inscribed for the next knockout fixture of the season. With rain threat looming large, Nicholas Pooran won a crucial toss and his bowlers ripped through SFU's top-order. Nosthush Kenjige and Boult took turns to dismantle the top-order, picking two wickets each inside the PowerPlay.

Matthew Short's team was down to 16 for 5 in the fifth over when Hassan exited for a duck through a run-out. Cooper Connolly attempted to drag his team out of this quagmire but Tristan Luus and Rushil Ugarkar kept up the bowling pressure. After a brief show of resistance, Connolly was taken out by Luus and Ugarkar dismissed Hammad Azam to leave Unicorns down to 62/7. Brody Couch joined forces with a counter-punching Xavier Bartlett to avoid the ignominious position for their side of finishing with a sub-100 total in such a big game.

Bartlett played the protagonist in the alliance, as they added 59 runs off 32 balls. Ugarkar broke the stand in the 17th over and wrapped up the tail but Bartlett's 24-ball 44 dragged the Unicorns to 133, which still appeared sub-par. An hour of rain followed, threatening to deny MINY a shot at chasing it. However, once it cleared, the chase began without any over lost to pave the way for the thriller.

MINY were solid at the start as Monank Patel and Quinton de Kock took the team to 37/0. But the wheels then came off against spin. Short brought himself on in the seventh over and struck twice, dismissing de Kock as well as Pooran to ramp up some pressure. Monank and Michael Bracewell found themselves in a shell as they dragged the team to 58/2 at the halfway stage.

The asking rate had climbed but was still not beyond the batting team's reach. But just when Monank started to open up, Short returned to send him packing in the 13th over. The momentum began to shift once more when Bartlett dismissed Kieron Pollard in the 14th, and left-arm spinner Hassan Khan followed that with two stirring overs. He picked two wickets each in both to send MI NY from 98/4 to 108/8 in the space of 13 frantic deliveries.

As it turned out, the game flipped back on its head in Hassan's next over in the 19th through Boult, who then coolly led the team past the finish line in the final over with an unbeaten 22.

Brief Scores: San Francisco Unicorns 133 in 19.1 overs (Xavier Bartlett 44; Rushil Ugarkar 3-19, Trent Boult 2-19) lost to MI New York 132/8 in 19.3 overs (Monank Patel 33, Quinton de Kock 33, Trent Boult 22*; Hassan Khan 4-30, Matthew Short 3-22) by 2 wickets