Ellyse Perry – The Australian women cricketer has always held a special place in the heart of the fans for her achievements and the style of play over the years. Now, she added yet another feather to her hat by registering yet another remarkable record in her cricketing safari.
Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry on Sunday became the first player ever – male or female – to achieve a unique double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in T20 internationals in the team’s impressive seven-wicket win against England in the second match of the three-match series.
Ellyse Perry removed Nat Sciver to get her 100th Wicket:
Nat Sciver became Perry’s 100th wicket in the shortest format as Australia restricted England to 121 for 8 and then chased down the target in 17.5 overs at Hove. Perry also scored 47 not out off 39 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six. Captain Meg Lanning also contributed with 43 runs while Alyssa Healy made 20.
Perry became the fifth Australian woman to score 1,000 runs in T20 Internationals; joining Meg Lanning, Elyse Villani, Alyssa Healy and Alex Blackwell. However, she became the first player in the history of the sport to register 1000 runs and take 100 wickets in the format.
The former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi (1416 runs and 98 wickets) stood closest to achieving the massive double, while Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib al Hasan, with 1471 runs and 88 wickets, stands next in line to join Perry.
Speaking of the achievement, Ellyse Perry isn’t that excited and in fact, felt that the record is obvious to come as they play a lot of T20I cricket compared to Men’s cricket. In a characteristic way, she downplayed all those headlines.
“I guess it’s lovely, but I wasn’t aware of it,” she said. I actually think in T20 cricket at the international level, we probably play it as much as the men. So I have played a pretty big volume of games now – over 100. So, I suppose when you’ve played 100 games you might get close to it. That’s probably the only reason I’m there – because I’ve played a lot of games.
Australia has dominated this series, leading 12-2 on points going into Wednesday’s final T20I. All in all, it was a fantastic series for Elysse Perry, as she shone in every format of the game for Australia.