Mumbai: Texas Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis smashed 103 not out in just 53 balls, and his team, the Texas Super Kings, beat the MI New York by 39 runs in the high-voltage Major League Cricket (MLC) 2025 in Grand Prairie Stadium, in Texas, USA, on June 16.
MI New York captain Nicholas Pooran chose to bowl first, and the Texas Super Kings offered a formidable 223 against him. Though the opener, Smit Patel, was gone on a duck, Du Plessis led the inning with a blistering score, hitting nine sixes and five fours and giving a strike rate of 194.34. Crouch stabilised the innings with an influential performance of 25 runs off 18 balls, alongside Saiteja Mukkamalla (also scoring 25 runs off 18 balls), Marcus Stoinis (25 runs off 22 balls), and Donovan Ferreira, who had a speedy innings of 53 runs in just 20 balls.
The chase by MI New York stumbled soon, and Pooran (8) and Quinton de Kock (35) failed to capitalise. Any hope of reaching the score was given after a bravado 70-ball 56 with 5 6s and 5 4s by Kieron Pollard, but 3 wickets each by Akeal Hosein and Stoinis and two by Nandre Burger held MI New York to 184 in 9 wickets.
The century was the third century made by Du Plessis in MLC history, so he became the holder of the record of most centuries in MLC, overtaking Finn Allen with only two. When he scored his first T20 century at the age of 39 he had become the first batter to score a T20 century after turning 40 years old, which further illustrated his stature as a great of T20 cricket.
This was the player’s second century of the MLC 2025 season, achieved by scoring 100 runs in 51 balls during a game against the San Francisco Unicorns on June 20. The highest run scorer of the tournament is his 783 runs scored in 22 MLC matches. Texas Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming stated that Faf’s knock was a power-hitting and leading masterclass, as reported in ESPNcricinfo. Although George Linde and Rushil Ugarkar claimed two wickets each, the bowlers of MI New York were ineffective and gave away too many runs.
The victory was the 5th by Texas Super Kings in MLC 2025 in which the club stood at 3rd position with 10 points. MI New York, which is in the sixth loss, languishes in the fifth position. San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom lead the table with 12 points each, separated by their respective net run rates.
The century by du Plessis not only helped the Texas Super Kings make the playoffs but also highlighted his classic status as a player even at the age of 40. With the peak of the MLC 2025 approaching, the Texas Super Kings are in the partnership to win their first trophy, and their captain has taken up the leadership role.