Perth, March 7 (IANS) Veteran seam-bowling all-rounder Ellyse Perry said she was relishing her time in the middle after becoming Australia’s leading run-scorer in women’s Tests during day two of the one-off pink-ball match against India at the WACA Ground on Saturday.
Ellyse, 35, overtook Karen Rolton’s tally of 1,002 Test runs by crossing the 1,000-run milestone with a single before driving a boundary to claim the record. She was eventually dismissed lbw by Deepti Sharma for 76, leaving her with 1,006 runs in the longer format.
“It feels like I’ve been around for a long time now! But, it was a really enjoyable session out there batting with Annabel Sutherland. She’s just so classy. Being at the other end watching her do her thing was absolutely awesome.
“In the bigger scheme of the match, it was a really good session for us to put ourselves in a strong position. Hopefully the rest of the day goes really well for us. It was just really nice to be out there,” said Ellyse in a chat with broadcasters at tea break.
Ellyse and Annabel added 128 for the third wicket, a stand that shifted momentum firmly towards Australia, as they got a 19-run lead at the end of the first session. “I think last night there was a tricky patch and I felt like we just started to build a little bit of momentum towards the back end of the evening.
“We knew this morning it might be tough to start, but then it could get a bit nicer to score runs. The quicks bowled a lot of overs last night, so it felt like we might get more chances today to settle into the rhythm of the innings. As I said, Annabel was phenomenal in that partnership. It was really nice to build that stand together and we had a lot of fun out there.”
Conditions, Ellyse noted, were more forgiving than what it was on day one. “It probably didn’t seam around quite as much today. The odd ball still nipped a bit, but last night it felt like every single ball was going one way or the other – it was almost impossible to pick.
“Today it just felt a little bit truer. You could trust your shots a bit more. There’s also a bit more spin in the wicket now, which is great because it should set up a good contest for the rest of the match. But overall it just felt a bit more reliable to play your shots.”
Ellyse, who has 39 Test wickets to her name, is now the only woman to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken more than 30 wickets in the format. Looking ahead, Ellyse said Australia’s batting depth could help them press home their advantage.
“We’ve got such a deep batting order as well. It’ll be interesting to see how we set this up. Hopefully over the next couple of sessions we can put down a really strong marker that gives us a good chance to be attacking with the ball later on. But, exciting times for Annabel – and hopefully the next session goes really well for us.”
--IANS
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