The Cognizant Major League Cricket Season 2 final took place in Grand Prairie Texas on Sunday night with the Washington Freedom taking on the San Francisco Unicorns before an energetic sold-out crowd.
Fans started pouring into the stadium early, and many stayed well past the closing ceremonies, savoring every last minute of their summer of cricket.
The drones stole the show
While the Cognizant Major League Cricket is packed with many of the world’s top cricketers, several of whom were on the field Sunday, the real star of the event was the drone halftime show.
The Freedom, who lost the toss, got off to a thundering start putting up a formidable 207 for 5, behind the impressive knocks of Captain Steve Smith (88 off 52 balls including seven 4s and six 6es), Glenn Maxwell (40 off 22 balls) and Andries Gous (21 off 14 balls).
Soon after the Freedom finished their innings, a little past 9PM local time, the stadium lights went off, and fans were treated to a 10 minute display of lights and colors, as an army of drones created picture after cricket-themed picture against a backdrop of music and the pitch black Dallas sky.
Almost as loud as the hit songs were the roars of the crowd with every scene change.
Here are some of the visual highlights:
Getting their money’s worth
After the drone show, the most popular attraction with fans were, interestingly, the sponsor activation booths.
Royal Foods was giving out cups of rice and opportunities to join a promotion; and Remitly was giving out merchandise. Fans were lining up in droves for both.
Sponsors were front and center later in the evening as well. Two sponsor representatives — Todd Myers, COO of Willow TV (which was both a sponsor as well as the official broadcast partner for the US and Canada), and Dominic Rae, Sponsorships Manager for Stakes — participated in the post-match awards ceremony.
Willow TV’s Myers presented Saurabh Netravalkar with the tournament’s Leading Wicket Taker award.
Stakes’ Rae, an Australian resident himself, presented Travis Head with the Player of the Tournament award.
In addition, USA Cricket’s new CEO, Johnathan Atkeison — in attendance a few days before officially starting on the job — presented the Domestic Player of the Tournament to the Unicorns’ Hassan Khan.
Slight anticlimax
In contrast to the Freedom, the Unicorns’ innings fell apart pretty quickly, as they lost three early wickets in the power play. With a high target (208) and a high and climbing required run rate, the pressure resulted in a quick succession of dismissals.
In the end, they were all out for 111 after only 16 innings. The Freedom won the championship handily, by 96 runs.
Let freedom reign
That anticlimactic end of the match did not take away from the Freedom’s victory and accomplishment — in fact, it enhanced it.
They dominated the tournament, finishing at the top of the table, and only losing once to the Unicorns, who they then went on to defeat twice.
After the match, during and after the awards ceremony, the extended Freedom family celebrated on the pitch. Team owner Sanjay Govil could be seen celebrating with the Freedom’s players and staff.
CEO Dhiraj Malhotra, an IPL and ICC veteran, was walking around greeting the opposition and making sure all players and guests were taken care of, and Head of Marketing Sumeet Rajpal was capturing moments to share on the team’s social channels.
We’re pinching ourselves
For American fans of cricket, MLS Season 2 was an absolute delight.
To have top foreign stars in our midst for a full month, on the heels of the World Cup, was cricket ecstasy: Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Rachin Ravindra, Haris Rauf, Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Roy, David Miller, Faf du Plessis — and too many others to name. The talent level in the MLC 2 was probably second only to the IPL as far as T20 tournaments go.
To top it off, many American cricketers shone brightly throughout July: some cricket household names (Netravalkar, Gous, Ali Khan, and Corey Anderson, among others) and some new stars, including the Unicorns’ Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Hassan Khan (the latter being awarded domestic player of the tournament).
This was something US cricket fans would never have even dared imagined just a few years ago.
MLC Co-Founder Sameer Mehta summed up the sentiment for us well during the post-match celebrations: “look at this — this is all very real.”
This statement captured the years of vision and effort on the part of Mehta and his co-founder Vijay Srinivasan to make Sunday happen.
Indeed, major kudos to the MLS team that put on this final as well as the whole tournament: Mehta and Srinivasan, Monica Sadhu, Justin Geale, Zubin Surkari, Mervyn Pereira, William Swann, Selby Sturzenegger, David White, and many others — and of course to all the MLC teams and their staffs, and many other outside partners (not least the team from Kojo, spearheaded by Britt Prince).
We are already getting extremely excited for Season 3.
