Very few athletes hold a unique distinction of representing their countries in 2 or more sports and that too at a very young age. Hailed as ‘the greatest woman player’ ever to have played the game by her English rivals. A woman, a modern-day antidote, a millennial one of its kind, here’s wishing one of the finest all-rounders of the game, Ellyse Perry a belated happy 29th birthday!
🏏⚽️ Happy birthday to @EllysePerry, the first Australian 🇦🇺 to have appeared in both cricket & football World Cups 🙌 pic.twitter.com/uAo20zkkMn
— FIFA Women’s World Cup (@FIFAWWC) November 2, 2019
Ellyse Alexandra Perry made her International Debut, both for Cricket and Soccer at the age of 16. A rapid rise saw Perry play her 1st International match against New Zealand in July 2007 despite not playing a single match at the non-youth level(senior). She is still the youngest debutant for Australia, who were looking for a replacement for their retired pacer Catheryn Fitzpatrick. With a decent outing in her first game, taking 2 wickets at an economy of 4.6 and also scored 19 runs coming in at 9. Some impressive performance in Women’s National Cricket League helped her retain the spot in the Australian side for home series against England. She made her T20I debut at the iconic MCG in front of a huge crowd. She had a dream debut as she scored a helpful 29 runs and took 4 English wickets giving just 20 runs. In the ODI series too she made timely contributions which eventually ended as a 2-2 drawn series. Perry ended the England series with 9 wickets at 14.21 and also scored 47 runs.
Ellyse made her Test Debut at Bowral which was a one-off test which wasn’t a great one for her as well as the Aussies, as she made 27 runs in 2 innings and took 3 wickets in the entire match as Australians succumbed to a 6 wicket loss.
Impactful and impressive performances continued on the way and Perry made it to the 2009 World Cup squad. More than average performances with the ball meant Perry finished with 9 wickets at an avg of 21.55 and the Australians won the tournament. She couldn’t exactly replicate the same performance in the inaugural Women’s T20 World Cup.
She took her first five-fer in International Cricket against New Zealand in 2010. Ellyse was also a part of the 2010 Women’s World Cup which Australia won. Ellyse Perry was named Player of the match in the finals of that competition for her 3 wickets where she just conceded 18 runs and a boundary save off her own bowling on the last ball of the innings which turned the result of the match. She was also Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament.
In a span of 2-3 years, Ellyse had made a mark in International Cricket and was a part of the core Aussie team. The 2013 World Cup defined what Ellyse Perry is as she played with an injured leg in the final and bowled one of the best spells of her career 3/19. Australia beat West Indies. Perry registered 8 wickets in the Tournament.
The Sydney born also has a good record against her arch-rivals, England. Since the inception of the multi-format in 2013, Perry is the highest run-scorer and the highest wicket-taker from both sides. She has 1425 runs at an outstanding average of 59.38 with her career-best coming in the home Ashes series in 2017-18 and also she has 55 wickets to her name.
Speaks about the impact and performances she has put in. It was the 2015 Ashes series when Ellyse started contributing with the bat more and she was fittingly adjudged as the Player of the Series by scoring 264 runs and taking 16 wickets. From 2015 to mid-2017, Perry smashed 16 half-centuries in 26 innings. This also included five successive 50+ scores during the group stage of the 2017 Women’s World Cup.
She is the first cricketer(male/female) to have scored 1000 runs and taken 100 wickets in T20 international cricket.
Time and time again she has proved her worth and also continues to be the mainstay of the Australian XI. Laurels and accolades keep coming, in an already remarkable career.
Ellyse Perry’s records and achievements in numbers:
• Winner of four World T20s (2010, ’12, ’14 & ’18) and one ODI World Cup (2013).
• No. 1 ranked allrounder in ODIs and T20Is.
• No. 4 ranked batswoman in ODIs.
• No. 4 ranked bowler in ODIs and no. 9 in T20Is.
• Test double centurion.
• 5 five-wicket hauls in Tests and ODIs.
• More than 100 wickets in ODIs and T20Is.
• More than 2000 ODI runs and 140 ODI wickets.
• Played more than 200 international games for Australia.
Source: cricbuzz, wikipedia, espncricinfo
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