With a victory in the cliffhanger against defending champions, San Francisco Unicorns became the second team after the Washington Freedom to book a place in the playoffs.
Batting first after winning the toss, San Francisco Unicorns were restricted to 148/7 in their 20 overs.
The Unicorns were reeling at 33/5 but the 87-run stand between skipper Corey Anderson and Hassan Khan (44 off 35) brought them back in the game.
Anderson remained unbeaten on 59 off 37 balls and played a crucial hand to get his side out of trouble.
Nosthush Kenjige and Trent Boult took two wickets each for the MI New York side while Romario Shepherd and Rashid Khan chipped in with one apiece.
MI New York Ruben Clinton for a duck in their run chase. But Dewald Brevis and Nicholas Pooran added 77 for the second wicket.
Brevis made an attacking fifty and departed on 56 off 36. The wicket of Brevis put the brakes on scoring for MI New York and they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Brody Couch and Matthew Short shared five wickets among them while Haris Rauf and Hassan Khan chipped with one apiece.
Rashid Khan and Heath Richards swung their bats at the backend but failed to take their team over the line.
It boiled down to MI New York needing 20 runs off the last over bowled by Haris Rauf.
Heath Richards hit the penultimate ball of the match for a six to make it 4 needed off the last ball.
But Haris Rauf dismissed Heath Richards trapped plumb in front with a full-length delivery, on off. Richards went for the reverse sweep but missed and it clipped off the pad, to go through to the keeper.
Richards did not review and the Unicorns won by 3 runs.
The Unicorns moved to second position in the points table, while MI New York slumped to their fourth loss of the season and have just a game in hand.
On the verge of elimination, MI New York will not only have to beat the Knight Riders in a must-win game for both, they’ll have to do it by a fair margin as well.