On December 27, the ICC awards of the decade were announced and there is no prize for guessing who bagged the maximum honors in women’s cricket. It is Australia’s Ellyse Perry, who swept the three major individual women’s honors, namely, ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade, ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Decade, and ICC Female Player of the Decade.
There is seldom any doubt that the dashing all-rounder from Down Under has established her as a pivotal part of the Australian line-up with stellar performances with both bat and ball.
The 30-year old made her debut in 2007 and was the youngest to play for Australia in an ODI. She was just 16 years 261 days old. Though she was equally good in soccer having represented the country in the World Cup, she chose cricket.
In her international cricket career that spans over 13 years, she has many stupendous achievements, for instance, her scintillating double hundred in the Ashes in Sydney in 2017, is undoubtedly her career-best.
Dear Twitter,
Let us take a moment and congratulate this superstar Ellyse Perry for ruling this decade.
🏆 Female Cricketer of the Decade,
🏆 Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade
🏆 Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Decade!👏👏😍 #ICCAwards #iccawardsofthedecade #EllysePerry pic.twitter.com/1wszhXa7hu
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 28, 2020
The Australian women’s cricket team has dominated the women’s game for quite some time now. Their success record at the ICC events is second to none. The Aussies have won five out of seven World T20 titles and one of the common threads in the success-yarn has been Ellyse Perry.
Superstat
She is the first and only cricketer in history to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in T20I cricket.
Other statistics
Batting
| Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | Ct | St | |
| Tests | 8 | 13 | 5 | 624 | 213* | 78.00 | 1382 | 45.15 | 2 | 2 | 79 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| ODIs | 112 | 89 | 31 | 3022 | 112* | 52.10 | 3917 | 77.15 | 2 | 27 | 247 | 24 | 37 | 0 |
| T20Is | 120 | 72 | 29 | 1218 | 60* | 28.32 | 1155 | 105.45 | 0 | 4 | 103 | 23 | 36 | 0 |
Source: ESPN Cricinfo
Bowling
| Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR | 4w | 5w | 10w | |
| Tests | 8 | 15 | 1534 | 564 | 31 | 6/32 | 9/70 | 18.19 | 2.20 | 49.4 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| ODIs | 112 | 110 | 5110 | 3693 | 152 | 7/22 | 7/22 | 24.29 | 4.33 | 33.6 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| T20Is | 120 | 116 | 2261 | 2209 | 114 | 4/12 | 4/12 | 19.37 | 5.86 | 19.8 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Source: ESPN Cricinfo
Her vision
“My biggest hope is that it creates its own strong identity and exists in its own right – not as a comparison to the men’s game,” Ellyse Perry once said.
Quotes
Georgia Elwiss, England women cricketer: “She’s always having a hit, always working on parts of her game, and she doesn’t mind if that means she’s last off the training ground. But she has fun along the way, as well. The way she goes about her business and how professional she is – while also being so lovely and so normal – says a lot about her.”
Charlotte Edwards, former England captain: “The greatest player we have ever seen in the women’s game, purely because she can change the game with bat or ball.”
I am a former cricketer having represented Mumbai University at All India University level. I was a part of MCA probables for the U-19 and U-23 age group. I have been an avid cricket writer for the last five years. Currently I am pursuing my Ph.D from IIT Bombay.
