MINY vs SF Preview | MINY vs SF Preview । MI New York and San Francisco set to clash in must-win eliminator

ByUmesh Sharma,SportsCafe Editor

Yesterday at 10:21 PM

Xavier Bartlett of San Francisco Unicorns in action

San Francisco Unicorns and MI New York will face each other in the all-important and do-or-die eliminator game of the ongoing Major League Cricket 2025 (MLC 2025). The losing side of this game will be eliminated, which makes this game a must-win for both teams to stay alive in the race for final.

Two of the top four teams from the tournament’s league stage, MI New York and San Francisco Unicorns and MI New York will take on each other in the Eliminator of the ongoing third edition of the Major League Cricket. The game will be played at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas on July 9, 2025.

MI New York won only three games while losing seven in their 10 games, having six points to their name at the end of the league stage. They are coming off two wins and three defeats in their last five games. On the other hand, San Francisco Unicorns enjoyed a brilliant run of form in the preliminary stage of the tournament, winning seven and losing only three games in their 10 matches, earning 14 points.

Form Guide

MINY: L L W W L

SF: W L L W L

MINY vs SF Head-to-Head in T20S

MI New York and San Francisco Unicorns have played against each other in the history of the Major League Cricket since the tournament’s inception in 2023. In these four clashes, the Unicorns have won all the four games while MI New York being winless. In the recent two clashes in the current edition, SF Unicorns won both the game by the margins of 3 wickets and 47 runs, respectively.

MINY 30-70 SF

Pitch and Weather

The surface at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas has a history of favouring the batters, especially in the first innings of the game. However, the bowlers (mostly pacers) might get some help from this track in the second half of the game. The average score here has been 204 runs while the average first-innings score is 209. So, the toss-winning skipper will look ahead to bat first and trouble the opponent with a tricky run-chase in the second innings.

The weather will be hot and humid, with clear skies, and there are no rain interruptions expected throughout the entire game. The minimum temperature will 24 degrees Celsius, with the maximum temperature of 33 degrees Celsius.

Team News

MI New York are expected to go with the unchanged playing XI, as they will be avoiding picking any replacement in this must-win eliminator game. So, the Nicholas Pooran and Co. are highly likely to field the same eleven they played with in the last game.

Star San Francisco Unicorns’ pacer Haris Rauf sustained a hamstring injury, which ruled him out of the MLC 2025 playoffs. So, Haris Rauf will be replaced by the 29-year-old New Zealand pacer Ben Lister in the Unicorns’ playing XI for the eliminator against MINY.

MINY Probable XI: Monank Patel (WK), Nicholas Pooran (C), Sharad Lumba, Tajinder Singh, Fabian Allen, Delano Potgieter, Sunny Patel, Heath Richards, Nosthush Kenjige, Tristan Luus, and Kunwarjeet Singh.

SF Probable XI: Matthew Short (C), Finn Allen (WK), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthy, Hassan Khan, Romario Shepherd, Hammad Azam, Xavier Bartlett, Karima Gore, Brody Couch, and Ben Lister