MI New York 179 for 8 (Tajinder 66*, Pollard 54, Stoinis 5-46) beat Seattle Orcas 162 for 6 (Seifert 88, Breetzke 44, Pollard 2-9, Shepherd 2-17) by 17 runs

A remarkable lower-order recovery led by Tajinder Singh's unbeaten 27-ball 66 propelled MI New York to a 17-run win over Seattle Orcas and gave them a vital two points with the playoffs race nearing its finish. MINY have 10 points from nine games, which put them in second place on the MLC 2026 table when their match finished, behind San Francisco Unicorns who had the same points total with a game in hand and a better net run rate.

Sent in to bat, MINY were in deep trouble at 73 for 5 in the 12th over, with Marcus Stoinis doing the bulk of the damage having taken the new ball. Then Tajinder joined Kieron Pollard in an 80-run stand for the sixth wicket, off just 41 balls, before Stoinis returned and dismissed Pollard for a 33-ball 54 in the 19th over. When he followed up three balls later with the wicket of Romario Shepherd - his fifth - it looked like MINY's innings would fizzle out.

Tajinder, however, gave them the perfect finish, hitting Dasun Shanaka for two fours and two sixes in a 20-run final over to push their total to 179 for 8. In all, MINY smashed 97 runs in the last seven overs of their innings.

Orcas' chase followed exactly the opposite script. They were 144 for 1 in the 16th over, needing just 36 off the last 26 balls, when Pollard ended a 117-run second-wicket stand, bowling Matthew Breetzke for 44 off 31 balls. That began an incredible slump, with Orcas managing just 18 runs off their last 26 balls for the loss of five wickets, with Pollard and Shepherd taking two each. Shepherd was particularly unhittable, conceding just one run in the 17th over and three in the 19th.

Tim Seifert, who had at one stage seemed to have all but won the game for Orcas, was out off the last ball of the 19th over for a 61-ball 88. Having been on 75 off 49 balls at one stage, Seifert lost steam, scoring just 13 runs off his last 12 balls.

Seifert's dismissal left Orcas needing 22 off the final over, with five wickets in hand, and Pollard gave away just four runs while taking the wicket of Ali Sheikh.

"I don't think we bowled smart enough towards the end, and I don't think we took enough responsibility with the bat," Orcas captain Stoinis said at the presentation. "So yeah, that one is pretty disappointing."