The West Indies middle-order maverick unleashed his wrath on the opposition with an unbeaten 137 off 55 deliveries in Dallas.
Nicholas Pooran blasted his way to an incredible 137 not out off just 55 deliveries to tilt the scales decisively in favour of MI New York in the final of the Major League Cricket (MLC) this Sunday (July 31) night in Dallas, USA.
The West Indies middle-order smasher made an easy feast of the imposing 184-run target set by Seattle Orcas on a flat batting beauty at the Grand Prairie Stadium. The aggressive left-hander lit-up the inaugural MLC final against the Orcas attack and belted the ball out of the mark for a jaw-dropping 13 times.
Pooran hit 13 sixes during his memorable outing for the MI franchise, unleashing his beautiful downswing to find optimum connection past for each of his maximums out of a reasonably big ground in Dallas.
On a flat pitch, the margin for error for the Orcas attack was anyway minimal, but they made their life extremely difficult by repeatedly erring too full or too short once put under the pump by the Caribbean assaulter. Pooran hammered them to bits through the run-chase and saw MI home to another title.
Walking into bat as early as the fourth ball of the MI New York’s run-chase after the loss of opener Steven Taylor without a run on the board, Nicholas Pooran entered the beast mode from the word go and went hell for leather, smashing a total of 23 boundaries on the day, including 13 maximums.
The innings went at a mindboggling strike-rate of 249.09 and further reiterated Pooran’s status as one of the high-rated limited-overs match-winners with bat in hand. Fans watching the game were left mesmerised by the strokeplay on display as none of the opposition bowlers could come up with a safe response to stop the rampaging player.
Watch: Virat Kohli makes young fan’s day; wears bracelet gifted by little girl
Nicholas Pooran’s sixes in the MLC Final.
He smashed 13 sixes – carnage from Pooran..!! pic.twitter.com/4YivR5aR0p
— Viratkohli.Fc (@viratkohli_18_0) July 31, 2023
The Orcas attack featured Imad Wasim, Cameron Gannon, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Andrew Tye and Harmeet Singh, but the assault from Pooran was so brutal that 7.0 from Imad, whom Pooran’s presence batted out of the contest, was the most economical bowler. Pretorius was the worst with an ER of 15.70.