T20 Cricket - Varsity Challenge

The Monash University Cricket team posing for a team photo before they take on The University of Melbourne in the 2017 T20 Varsity Challenge cricket game.

Monash University and The University of Melbourne played off in the highly anticipated T20 cricket match as part of the 2017 Varsity challenge.

Having won the toss, Monash decided to bat first and put on a classy display.

Monash’s Captain and current Arts student Sachin Varadarajan starred with the bat, hitting the Melbourne bowlers all over the park, including four big sixes, en route to scoring 66 runs.

Varadarajan gave an insight into his thought process while at the crease.

Victorious Monash captain Varadarajan
collecting the Varsity Challenge trophy.

“The other opener and the number 3, James Wiseman, and Jarrod Munday respectively, I had great partnerships with both of them. And the majority of what we were saying together was get a boundary an over, limit risks and get the team close to 150 if possible."

"As soon as Jarrod came to the crease, he started hitting boundaries regularly, so the pressure was equally distributed, he played brilliantly. We both just tried to limit risks and push the pace of the game to where we were happy it being, and then maintain that.”

Monash built their innings around Varadarajan, with Jarrod Munday scoring an impressive 39. James Wiseman and Rupert O’Toole chipped in with handy scores of 16 and 18 respectively, and bringing the innings home was Adi Narayana and Hayden Rayner, both scoring 10.

Varadarajan reflected on the batting performance of his team.

“We dominated right through. We set a massive total through mainly the top order, lots of boundaries and hard running.”

Monash were unrelenting on their way to an impressive 4/180 off their 20 overs.

After a superb effort with the bat, and an imposing total to work with, Monash put on a bowling clinic.

The Monash’s bowlers were hungry for wickets, Rishabh Nagpal lead the bowling with the figures of 3/25, taking two of the top four Melbourne batsmen. Nagpal combined with Luke Shimmin, who took 3/38, to terrorise the Melbourne batsmen.

In addition, Rayner, who took a wicket with the first ball of the innings, finished with a tidy 1/11. Thomas Leatham also chipped in taking 1/14. Varadarajan, showed that he is also handy with the ball, bowling a maiden from his one over.

Varadarajan praised the opening bowlers for getting on top of the Melbourne batsmen early.

“We bowled brilliantly, with a wicket with the first ball of our bowling innings and 3 wickets in the first 2 overs.”

The Monash University team during the
after match presentation.

Monash were able to put the game away early and wrapped up the game with several overs left.

Melbourne were bowled out for 115, with Yaksender the highlight of the Melbourne innings scoring 56.

Monash convincingly took out this year’s T20 cricket Varsity Challenge by 65 runs.

The victory combined with their bronze medal at the Australian University games in 2016, holds the team in good stead for 2017.

Well done to all involved for put on a great game to watch.

For more information about TeamMONASH and the Varsity Challenge visit:
https://www.monash.edu/teammonash
http://varsitychallenge.com.au/