Women Cricketer Ellyse Perry and all her fans suffered a major heartbreak as the iconic all-rounder missed on another Ashes century by only 1 run.
On Day 1 of the Women’s Ashes 2023, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, after Australia captain Alyssa Healy won the toss and Ellyse Perry had been batting brilliantly and had reached 99 runs off 152 balls with the help of 15 sweetly-timed boundaries.
However, aiming for a boundary shot to bring up what would have been her third Ashes century, Ellyse Perry flashed hard at a length ball outside off from Lauren Filer, and a thick edge flew to gully where the safe fielder Nat Sciver-Brunt took a simple take to break Perry’s hearts for a third Ashes ton.
Ellyse Perry, who had dominated England in the past Ashes series with a best score of 213 in 2017 and 116 and 76* in 2019, became only the 4th women’s batsman in women’s cricket history to be dismissed for 99 runs.
List of women cricketers to be dismissed on 99 in Test cricket:
Betty Snowball (ENG v AUS), 1937
Jill Kennare (AUS v IND), 1984
Jess Jonassen (AUS v ENG), 2015
Perry (AUS v ENG), 2023
Courtesy of 99 from Ellyse Perry, and 61 from Tahila McGrath, Australia posted 328/7 on Day 1.
Talking about her missing out on a century by only a run, Perry said, “Like every other ball, it’s just an opportunity at a particular moment in time, and I’d had a really great tussle with Filer the whole time. I thought she was extremely impressive today on debut and brought the game alive at different points.
“So that ball just had my measure, which is totally fine. It’s a number, and one that we talk about a lot in cricket, but the whole experience out there today was so much fun. I’ve loved every opportunity. Sometimes things just go that way. It’s hard to be disappointed.”
“It was nice to contribute,” she added. “It was nice to be a part of a few really good partnerships, particularly that one with TMac [McGrath]. It’s just like any other time to get out. It’s a bit of a bummer, but gosh, the game definitely goes on, and life goes on for sure.”
