As the historic Test match seemingly crawled towards an anti-climatic conclusion, Ellyse Perry cemented her place in the record books.
Ellyse Perry’s love affair with the pink ball has picked up where it left off four years ago, with the Australian all-rounder scoring a classy half-century against India on Sunday.
As the historic Test match seemingly crawled towards an anti-climatic conclusion, Perry patiently accumulated an unbeaten 68 off 203 balls in Australia’s first innings at the Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium.
The 30-year-old survived a difficult period under lights on Saturday evening when the Indian seamers ran riot with the pink Kookaburra before cementing her place in the history books on day four of the one-off Test.
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Perry’s Test batting average has ballooned to 86.50, the highest in the history of women’s cricket, as she became the first Australian to hit four consecutive 50+ scores in the Test format.
In her last 21 hours at the crease in Test cricket, she has been dismissed just once in 1002 deliveries while scoring 473 runs.
Her most recent scores in Test cricket are 68*, 76*, 116 and 213* – the double century occurring during Australia’s famous day-night Ashes contest at North Sydney Oval in November 2017.
As revealed by cricket statistician Ric Finlay, Perry now holds the all-time record for most runs scored over four consecutive Test innings, bettering the previous best of 450 by Australian great Karen Rolton.
Highest batting average in women’s Tests
86.50 – Ellyse Perry (AUS)
81.90 – Denise Annetts (AUS)
62.37 – Lorraine Hill (AUS)
59.88 – Enid Bakewell (ENG)
Perry has now faced 577 deliveries against the pink ball in Test cricket without being dismissed.
Australian wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy told reporters on Saturday: “(Perry) seems to be a pink-ball master out there with the bat.”
It wasn’t a chanceless innings for Perry by any means, with Indian keeper Taniya Bhatia putting down a tough chance 15 minutes before the dinner break.
Perry was also lucky to survive an LBW shout that appeared to flick her front pad before striking her bat.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Perry had become the first Australian to pass 5000 runs and 300 wickets in international cricket.
Despite Perry’s heroics, there was chaos at the other end of the pitch.
Australian all-rounder Ash Gardner threw away her wicket moments after reaching her maiden Test fifty, sparking a horror collapse of 4/15.
India’s seamers were impeccable with the second new ball, running through the Australian middle-order with precise swing bowling.
The hosts avoided the follow-on when debutant Darcie Brown cracked a boundary through the covers for her first Test runs.
Australian captain Meg Lanning declared the Australian innings at 241/9, with the hosts still trailing by 136 runs in Carrara.
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