Ricky Ponting joked that MI New York were “15 short” after scoring 266 in the MLC

Last Updated on 26 minutes ago by Charbel Coorey

Ricky Ponting has delivered another memorable quote, joking that MI New York were 15 runs short in their record-breaking encounter in Major League Cricket (MLC) on Wednesday.

MI New York, courtesy mainly of a 31-ball century by Nicholas Pooran, belted 266/9 on a dream batting surface at Coliseum. At the halfway mark, Ponting quipped “15 short, boys”, channelling his inner Jacques Kallis after the great all-rounder famously said Australia were 10-15 runs short in that 438 ODI in Johannesburg in 2006.

Ricky Ponting joked that MI New York were “15 runs short” – Andres Gous

Andres Gous and Steve Smith smashed centuries to lead Washington Freedom to the highest successful run chase in all T20s. Gous smashed 132 off 51 balls and Steve Smith finished not out on 110* off 48 balls as the Freedom mowed down the target with a remarkable eight balls to spare.

“At halftime we made a joke because Ricky, our coach, was part of that 438 game in South Africa and Kallis made the comment saying they’re 15 short and he just came out and said ’15 short, boys’ and that just made the changing room a bit relaxed,” Gous said at his post-match press conference, as quoted by cricinfo.

“Then, we just go out there… it’s actually such a simple play and you just got to keep going and going and going. So it was quite nice in that sense that there was no tactics about it, it was just swinging from the hip and hoping you hit it. 

“I think we only said when it was 26 needed from 28 balls or 27 balls that we said: ‘okay now we can start planning something’ but before that it was just let’s just keep swinging let’s keep swinging and lucky for us we just kept connecting it.”

During the match, Gous became the first USA batter to hit a century in the MLC. He and Smith hit 21 sixes between them in an extraordinary run chase.