Ellyse Perry cemented her name among the pantheon of Australian cricket greats even as another Test century went begging
Ellyse Perry has entered unchartered territory on day two at the WACA Ground, becoming Australia’s greatest run scorer in women’s Tests as she strengthened the hosts’ position in the day-night match against India.
Perry resumed on 43 on the second day in Perth and quickly settled into her work, bringing up a half-century from 70 deliveries with the first six of Australia’s innings.
The allrounder, who entered the match under an injury cloud after missing the ODIs against India with a quad strain, started the match with 930 Test runs to her name.
One hour into the opening session on Saturday, she hit a single to reach 1,000 Test runs and shortly after, hit a four down the ground to surpass Karen Rolton’s record of 1,002 by an Australian woman.
Shortly after, she was dismissed lbw by Deepti Sharma for 76, denying her a third Test century and leaving her with a tally of 1,006 with potentially a second dig to come in this match.
It was Perry’s first fifty in the format since July 2023, after she was dismissed for an uncharacteristic two in the last WACA Test against South Africa in early 2024, and pushed down the order to No.10 after injuring her hip during last year’s Ashes Test at the MCG.
She reached the 1,000-run milestone in her 15th Test and 24th innings, and in the process, also moved into the top 10 of top run scorers in women’s Tests, a list dominated by England players who historically played far more multi-day matches.
Of that top 10, which is led by England’s Jan Brittin who scored 1,935 across her 44 Test innings, Perry’s average of 59.17 following her dismissal is only bested by English 1970s star Enid Bakewell’s 59.88.
She is also the first Australian woman to score 1,000 runs in each of the three formats, and the seventh Aussie overall.
The 35-year-old will not add to her tally of 39 Test wickets in this game, given she is playing as a specialist batter following her injury-hampered preparation.
Regardless, she is now the only Australian woman to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken more than 30 wickets in Tests.
Perry shared the crease with Annabel Sutherland on the morning of day two, with her younger teammate resuming on 20 before going on to score a 70-ball half-century of her own.
Sutherland passed 600 Test runs in the process, and just seven runs into her career is already ninth on Australia’s list of all-time scorers.
NRMA Insurance Australia v India Multi-Format Series
Australia lead the multi-format series 8-4
February 15: First T20: India won by 21 runs (DLS)
February 19: Second T20: Australia won by 19 runs
February 21: Third T20: India won by 17 runs
February 24: First ODI: Australia won by six wickets
February 27: Second ODI: Australia won by five wickets
March 1: Third ODI: Australia won by 185 runs
Australia Test squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Darcie Brown, Maitlan Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Rachel Trenaman, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Amanjot Kaur, Uma Chetry, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Kranti Gaud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Sayali Satghare
March 6-9: Test match, WACA Ground, 4:20pm AEDT (D/N)
