MLC 2025 Final: MI New York Beat Holders Washington Freedom To Win Second Title

Rushil Ugarkar emerged as the star for MI New York (MINY) as the medium pacer conceded just six in the final over against the big-hitting duo of Glenn Maxwell and Glenn Phillips to help the NYC-based franchise beat defending champions Washington Freedom in the final of the 2025 Major League Cricket (MLC) on Sunday night in Dallas.

Maxwell (15) and Phillips (48*) looked set to take the Freedom to their second consecutive title as the table-toppers needed just 12 in the final over. However, after conceding only two singles off the first couple of balls, Ugarkar (2-32) bowled a dot ball to Maxwell and then had the Australia power hitter caught at deep mid-wicket to bring down the equation to 10 from 2.

Obus Pienaar, the new man in, could not connect the first ball and then his last-ball four did not matter as MINY players celebrated their second MLC title triumph.

Coached by Ricky Ponting and led by Maxwell, the Freedom had dominated the entire season and controlled the final for the large part. They won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Quinton de Kock (77) anchored the innings for MINY but the other big names like captain Nicholas Pooran (21), veteran Kieron Pollard (0) and the Kiwi all-rounder Michael Bracewell (4) could not do much.

When de Kock was going strong, it seemed MINY would get close to 200 but in the last five overs, they could only add 35 runs to the total and thus were restricted to 180/7. Lockie Ferguson was brilliant for the Freedom with three wickets for just 21 runs in his four overs.

Defending 181, Trent Boult (2-32) gave MINY the perfect start with two wickets in the first five balls of the chase without conceding a run. Despite the double blow, Rachin Ravindra kept finding boundaries and fired the Freedom to a 66-run powerplay.

Things looked in control for Washington when Ravindra got out to Ugarkar leaving 51 to be scored in 28 balls. However, Phillips and Maxwell were far from their best and could not find rhythm.

29 runs from the last two overs leading up to the 20th did bring the Freedom back into the game before Ugarkar delivered an ice-cold last over to take MINY to the title, their second in three years.

United States captain and MINY opener Monank Patel (478) finished as the tournament's leading run-scorer while emerging Australia paceman Xavier Bartlett (18) who played for San Francisco Unicorns ended up with most wickets.

Washington's Mitchell Owen (313 runs and 14 wickets) who represents Australia was the MVP of the season with top-10 finishes in lists of both most runs and most wickets.

This is the third title for the MI franchise in 2025 following their triumphs at SA20 2025 with MI Cape Town and at WPL 2025 with Mumbai Indians.