Photo Credit: ICC
Ellyse Perry loves playing the West Indies, and today was no exception.
While the all-rounder is too polite to admit it, saying as she picked up her Player of the Match award that she still didn’t think of it that way, her figures speak for themselves.
Across 10 matches against the West Indies prior to their ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 meeting, she averaged 169.00 with the bat, compared to a still impressive 50.36 generally.
And with the ball, she had taken 20 Windies wickets at an average of 13.90 – with her overall average in 124 matches was 24.97.
Her bowling figures of three for 22 today saw both averages get even lower, Perry now concedes only 13.04 runs on average before taking a wicket against the Maroon Warriors, with her general average down to 24.64.
With the bat, Perry showed she was still fallible as she was dismissed for 10 runs from 31 balls. But she still hung around long enough to put on a 51-run partnership with Rachael Haynes to help Australia recover from seven for two.
Perry was into the action early, handed the ball in the second over, and she dismissed Hayley Matthews for a duck – the opener unable to add to her three consecutive 40-plus scores so far in the World Cup.
With a batter in that kind of form, the ball had to be great and it was. Perry’s line and length were superb all day and this was no exception, swinging past the bat and clipping the top of off stump.
With her very next ball, Perry got another wicket as Kycia Knight outside edged the ball behind to Alyssa Healy to leave the West Indies on four for two and, ultimately, in too much trouble to recover from.
Deandra Dottin and Stafanie Taylor would provide some resistance until Perry got Dottin too, this time with the help of some excellent slip catching from Meg Lanning.
Lanning took a diving catch to her left after Dottin failed to get hold of the full ball as the dangerous opener departed for 16 from 36 balls.
Perry would continue to bowl economically as she continued right through to the end of the 16th over. With figures of three for 22, her job was done and the West Indies’ spirit was at least dented if not broken.
What makes Perry’s performance even more special is that the West Indies were, with the hindsight of their previous meetings, prepared for her.
But, as Matthews admitted, sometimes there is nothing you can do.
She said: “We know she’s a class player, one of the best all-rounders in the world. Obviously, we would have done our analysis on her and all the other players.
“But she came out there and she executed her plans really well. Hitting the stumps, getting close to the top off every time she came out there to bowl, using different angles on the crease and it seems to work against us.”
Both teams hold their chances of qualification for the semi-finals in their own hands, and Matthews issued a warning if Perry is to come up against her favoured foe again.
She added: “Hopefully if we do play them again in the tournament later on, we will be in a better position to not let her get on top as easily.”
