When people in the United States consider a standalone event a really big deal, we call it “The Super Bowl of ___.”
Like “Make America ___ Again” acronyms and “LOL,” we overuse the phrase. But it makes sense that we would want important happenings to have a certain big-time aura about them, with significant buzz and excitement culminating in a raucous celebration.
Not every championship game in a given sport commands the same level of attention as the NFL’s title tilt. But they do all command a certain heightened level of intensity that a sports fan finds especially appealing.
Photo by Shaun Roy / Sportzpics for MLC
So it was in Grand Prairie Sunday night as Cognizant Major League Cricket staged its 2025 championship match.
“The noise was fantastic. It made it feel like the event was supposed to,” said Washington Freedom all-rounder Rachin Ravindra.
Like the Super Bowl, it turned out to be a neutral-site encounter, with the local Texas Super Kings having fallen one game short of the final. Also like The Big Game, the stands felt full at Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium. This despite opponents who both represent East Coast cities and the last of them having been determined in a qualifying match only two nights prior.
The Freedom came in as defending champions and also as the top seed. As such, the matchup with MI New York featured a David vs. Goliath angle, which is always compelling. MINY had won just three of ten regular-season contests to barely sneak into the playoffs before upsetting two higher-seeded squads to become a finalist.
Despite their underdog status, MINY had the larger presence in the seating bowl Sunday. That could have to do with their affiliation with a popular Indian Premier League franchise or with the numerous shirts, hats, and flags their club had handed out to attendees before the game. I saw a handful of (probably) locals wearing their yellow Super Kings shirts who scooped up the blue freebies to become MINY supporters for an evening.
They had something to cheer for early as Quinton De Kock posted 77 runs to power his team to a first-innings total of 180. They then took two wickets in the first over of Washington’s innings, but the Freedom recovered somewhat as Ravindra went for 70. The champs would have a chance to chase down their opponents.
Photo by Shaun Roy / Sportzpics for MLC
Both sides provided championship-level effort.
“Whenever you play finals in any tournament, it’s a big occasion, said MINY’s Monank Patel, who plays for the U.S. internationally. “You play cricket to experience this kind of occasion, and you don’t get it every time. And whenever you get it, you enjoy the occasion and make sure that you give your 100%.”
Because opportunities to win titles come rarely in high-level leagues, it adds a glorious sort of tension to championship games. North Texas has had the good fortune to host a number of these events in recent years, including the NCAA Women’s Final Four, a CFP National Championship, four World Series (including the first neutral-site one), NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, the Women’s Tennis Association Finals, the Professional Bull Riding World Finals, the NBA Finals, MLS Cups, and even a Super Bowl (in 2011). It’s also hosted all three Major League Cricket Championship matches. These are major sporting events with world-class participants, including a significant competition in the world’s second-most popular sport (one whose worldwide viewership for its biggest matches outpaces the Super Bowl’s by a healthy margin). Just as the players don’t take these circumstances for granted, we in the region probably shouldn’t, either.
A contest like Sunday’s makes it even better. It came down to the final over, with 22-year-old Missouri native Rushil Ugarkar bowling against Freedom captain Glenn Maxwell, who had propelled Australia to victory in the last Cricket World Cup, and New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips, also an international-level competitor. The Freedom needed 12 runs to win, but Ugarkar held them off to make MINY the league’s first two-time champion (they had also won the inaugural title in 2023).
Photo by Shaun Roy / Sportzpics for MLC
“I’m very overwhelmed,” Ugarkar said after succeeding in the spotlight’s glare. “This is honestly one of the best moments of my life.”
The immediate aftermath for the Player of the Match and his teammates included all the pageantry one associates with championship postgames. The winning team hugged and high-fived while the runners-up consoled each other. The league handed out individual awards, every MINY player got a medal, and then the winning team posed jubilantly with the MLC trophy. It reminds one to soak in the atmosphere, because it doesn’t happen very often. In the postmatch press conference, MINY Captain Nicholas Pooran summed how such moments, in cricket or otherwise, mean a lot.
“That is what is special about this team and this tournament this year. Sports is a wonderful thing, and this is one of the moments that we’ll never forget in our life.”
