The wait is finally over, RCB fans! While the anticipation for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 has been building with glimpses of our favorite stars landing in India, one name was notably absent, sparking a flurry of concerned tweets and curious enquiring comments all over social media reading: Where is Ellyse Perry?
Fear not, Namma Bengaluru fans, the veteran Australian all-rounder and one of the heartbeats of the RCB, Ellyse Perry, has touched down in India to join the RCB camp ahead of the upcoming edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) from 14th February 2025 (Friday), entering the new season as the defending champions.
Perry had a delayed arrival, possibly because she was recovering from a hip injury that she suffered while fielding in the historic one-off Pink Ball Test match at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on 30th January 2025, as she fell awkwardly on her left hip while fielding on the boundary rope trying to save the boundary.
Perry, also famously known as Pez, has been a vital cog in the wheel as the Smriti Mandhana-led side ended the RCB franchise’s 16-year-long wait for the silverware at the franchise level in the previous edition in 2024. She ended the previous season as the leading run-scorer for RCB and topped the tournament’s run-scoring charts with 347 runs at a decent strike rate of 125.72 and a staggering average of 69.40 in nine innings with the bat in the previous edition.
Her masterful strokeplay yielded a couple of brilliant half-centuries. One of the best of those was on March 15th, 2024, when she scored a brilliant half-century (66 off 50 balls) against the Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator in Delhi.
There’s more to this legend than just her batting prowess. Perry etched her name in the WPL history books with a breathtaking spell of 4-0-15-6 against the Mumbai Indians on March 12th, 2024. This is not just a great spell; it’s the “Best-ever” bowling figure in the history of the WPL. This phenomenal display took her tournament’s wickets tally to seven at an average of 15.57 and an economy of 6.81 in seven innings with the ball for her side.
Overall, she has scored 600 runs across the first couple of editions at a strike rate of 124.74 and a staggering average of 54.54 in 17 innings with the bat for her side in the tournament. Her tally of runs includes four half-centuries, with her best performance with the bat for the franchise coming on 13th March 2023 against the Delhi Capitals when she scored an unbeaten half-century (67* off 52 balls) at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2023.
She has also picked up 11 wickets across the first couple of editions at an economy of 7.70 in 15 innings with the ball for the franchise. Fans now wait to see her back on the field soon, ready to break more records and set the stage on fire in the upcoming 3rd edition of the tournament.
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