DAL­LAS, Texas – West In­dies all-rounder Ro­mario Shep­herd pro­duced a cameo with the bat but su­per­stars Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pol­lard both failed, to send MI New York to a heavy 84-run de­feat to Wash­ing­ton Free­dom in Texas on Wednes­day.

In pur­suit of a chal­leng­ing 183 at Grand Prairie Sta­di­um, MI New York fold­ed meek­ly for a dis­ap­point­ing 88 in the 14th over, to slip to their third de­feat of the in Ma­jor League Crick­et cam­paign.

Shep­herd ar­rived at num­ber sev­en with the game all but gone to blast a 14-ball 25 with three fours and two six­es, but Pooran (4) and Pol­lard (4) made no im­pres­sion.

Sent in, Free­dom gath­ered 182 for five off their 20 overs with An­dries Gous (59) and Travis Head (54) both strik­ing half-cen­turies.

Gous belt­ed three fours and four six­es in a 48-ball knock while Head faced 33 de­liv­er­ies and count­ed nine fours and two fours, the pair putting on 73 for the sec­ond wick­et.

Rachin Ravin­dra blast­ed a 14-ball un­beat­en 31 with two fours and two six­es to­wards the end, adding a fur­ther 49 for the fourth with Gous.

Pol­lard picked up two for 14 from two overs of slow medi­um.

In re­ply, MI New York slumped to 43 for sev­en at the start of the ninth over, the top or­der wiped out by the fast bowl­ing trio of Jas­deep Singh (3-14), Lock­ie Fer­gu­son (2-16) and Mar­co Jansen (2-18).

Shep­herd counter-at­tacked in a 33-run, eighth wick­et stand with Trent Boult (16) be­fore the in­nings col­lapsed again.

CMC