We're at the halfway point of the inaugural Major League Cricket season and we've learned a couple of impressive things so far: Texas can be very hot in July and cricket fans in Texas aren't scared of the heat. After eight loud, festive, and jam-packed matches at Grand Prairie Stadium outside of Dallas, Texas, the action now moves to the bucolic Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina for the final seven games of the regular season.
It'll be interesting to see what the change of scenery does. The Texas Super Kings definitely enjoyed the home field advantage they had in Grand Prairie and after an 0-3 start, the LA Knight Riders probably felt like they couldn't get out of Texas soon enough.
As expected, international stars have put on some amazing performances so far, but there have been some impressive showings from a lot of the domestic players in the tournament. In fact, heading into the second half of the season, domestic players lead the league in runs, sixes, and wickets taken.
Steve Steinberg from CricAmerica breaks down the teams at the midway point of the tournament to see which four clubs have the best chance of a return trip to Grand Prairie for the Major League Cricket playoffs starting on July 27.
Texas Super Kings
The Super Kings leave the comforts of home and sit at the top of the table with a 2-1 record. A lot of this has to do with the stellar batting of Devin Conway and Dwayne Bravo, but the Super Kings got a nice surprise on opening night when Mohammad Mohsin grabbed four wickets against the Los Angeles Knight Riders. Mohsin, who wasn't chosen by the Super Kings until the final Wildcard round of the MLC draft just ten days before the start of the season, hasn't looked back. He leads the league with seven wickets heading into Morrisville.
Another solid surprise has been the play of Lahiru Milantha. Milantha has been coming in at three for TSK and with the shaky start of captain Faf du Plessis, he's been able to be an early innings stabilizer for the team. Last year, Milantha led the Atlantic Conference of Minor League Cricket with 534 runs and put up five half-centuries along the way. (He missed out on two others with knocks of 49 and 47.) The lineup may undergo some shaking up with the arrival of Daniel Sams, who was in England for the Vitality Blast T20 playoffs, but whatever XI they decide to go with, the Texas Super Kings will be the team to beat in the second half of the season.
Seattle Orcas
The only undefeated team left in the tournament, the Seattle Orcas head into Morrisville with a 2-0 record. When it came to the domestic draft, no team put more importance on past minor league performance than the Seattle Orcas. (It might be because the Seattle Thunderbolts won the league championship last season.) Yes, they did sign their share of international talent -- Quinton de Kock, Wayne Parnell, and Shimron Hetmyer -- but if you've been a fan of Minor League Cricket, you'll recognize a lot of names on the Orcas roster.
Nauman Anwar, who was second in the Pacific Conference in sixes last year, has impressed so far for the Orcas. He's opened the batting with de Kock in both wins and leads the team in both runs -- putting up knocks of 38 and 30 -- and boundaries with 11.
Another big name from Minor League Cricket making big waves at the Major League Cricket level is Harmeet Singh. Singh, who captained the Seattle Thunderbolts to the MiLC title last year, has been effective at both attacking and containing the opposition with the ball this year. The left-armed spinner has taken three wickets in the Orca's two wins and his 4.87 economy is the lowest in the league for anyone who's bowled at least eight overs.
San Francisco Unicorns
San Francisco arrives in Morrisville with a 2-1 record -- their only loss coming at the hands of the undefeated Orcas. The team's partnership with Cricket Victoria resulted in some heavy-hitting Aussie signings in Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, and Matthew Wade, but in the first half, it's been former New Zealander and now domestic player, Corey Anderson who's been supplying the majority of the power. The big lefty leads the league in runs with 142 and sixes with 10. His 91 not out against MI New York is the highest score put up by anyone this season. And high scores seem to be the theme of the season for the Unicorns. They're the only team to break the 200 mark in a game…and they've done it twice!
Leading the Unicorns in wickets is another domestic player with plenty of international experience. Liam Plunkett, who was part of England's World Cup-winning team in 2019 and who spent last year taking wickets for MiLC's Philadelphians, grabbed two wickets in each of the Unicorns first two games and fits in well in a bowling attack that includes a pair of high-profile Pakistani players -- leg spinner Shadab Khan and the super-fast Haris Rauf.
MI New York
Heading into the season, MI New York appeared to have one of the strongest rosters of international talent in the league with power-hitting Kieron Pollard -- number two on the list of all-time T20 six hitters -- and a tandem of quicks in Trent Boult and Kagiso Rabada. Due to commitments with the Afghanistan national team, though, maybe the most dominating player in the squad -- Rashid Khan, the best spin bowler on the planet -- missed out on the first two games of the season but flew in in time to pick up a wicket and shake off any jetlag in NY's third game.
In Khan's absence, we got to see one of Minor League Cricket's most exciting players. Nosh Kenjige grabbed two wickets and allowed just seven runs in three overs against the Los Angeles Knight Riders in his MLC debut. The USA Cricket star -- who had 26 wickets for minor league's Dallas Mustangs last year -- also made two nice catches in the field in his MLC debut and shows that MI NY has some serious depth amongst its spinners.
On the batting side, Shayan Jahangir has been a pleasant surprise for New York. He's opened the batting twice for the team and has scored 45 with a strike rate just shy of 100. If he can continue to get playing time, he could be a strong asset for the team. He was among the scoring leaders in MiLC's Pacific Conference last year and, more recently, put up an international century with a 100 not out for the USA against Nepal in a World Cup qualifier last month in Zimbabwe.
Washington Freedom
The Freedom are probably better than their fifth-place spot would have you think. At 1-1, their only loss is to the undefeated Seattle Orcas in the final over and their victory is over the league-leading Super Kings. The team looks to put the fear of God into opponents with a bowling attack that features South Africans Anrich Nortje -- possibly the fastest bowler in cricket -- and 6'10" Marco Jansen. And, yes, you read that right -- 6'10".
To complement the extreme heat, Washington drafted wisely, grabbing Saurabh Netravalkar in the fourth round. "Captain America" not only brings minor league experience to the table, but also the leadership skills that come from being captain of the USA team. Last year, Saurabh snagged 18 wickets for the Silicon Valley Strikers, including a five-wicket haul in the season opener. With the Freedom, he's grabbed one wicket in two games and his 5.71 economy is among the best in the league.
Fitting well in a lineup that includes such big guns as Glenn Phillips and Moises Henriques is Obus Pienaar. The Freedom's third round pick in the draft, Pienaar has a 112 strike rate for the year and his 18 not out against Texas was pivotal in Washington's victory. In two years of minor league action, Pienaar was extremely consistent with the bat, scoring 444 runs in 2021 and 443 runs last year.
Los Angeles Knight Riders
After an extremely shaky start, The Knight Riders look like they might finally be righting the ship. Even though they lost to San Francisco in their third match, they did put up 191 runs, which is a healthy jump in the right direction after getting bowled for just 50 by MI NY in their second game.
With the arrival of Jason Roy -- fresh from the Vitality Blast T20 playoffs -- the Knight Riders have another bat to add some pop alongside Andre Russell. (Russell currently sits at third place on the list of all-time T20 six-hitters.) But they aren't the only two that can go deep. LA's Jaskaran Malhotra is also in the record books for his power hitting. Malhotra and MI New York's Kieron Pollard are two of only four batters in the history of cricket to hit six sixes in an over in an international competition. Pollard did it with the West Indies versus Sri Lanka and Malhotra did it with the USA against Papua-New Guinea. This season, Malhotra has a 117.24 strike rate and five boundaries.
With Roy replacing the struggling Martin Guptill -- zero runs in two innings -- at the top of the order, LA looks to avoid the slow starts that have hamstrung their season so far. Opener Unmukt Chand has been one of the few consistent bats for the Knight Riders and a strong opening partnership of Roy and Chand could be exactly what LA need for the second half of the season. Chand, the captain of the India squad that won the Under-19 World Cup in 2012 and the captain of the Silicon Valley Striker team that won the minor league title in 2021, has managed a 102.04 strike rate at the top of the order despite LA wickets tumbling all around him.
The historic first season of Major League Cricket begins its second half of play Thursday at Church Street Park in Morrisville. The league hopes to position itself among the elite franchise T20 tournaments in the world and after the response -- both domestically and internationally -- to the first half of the season, it might be well on its way.
