ONE FOR THE AGES

A very Perry dose of genius

The artist.
The artist. ©BCCI

No sooner had Ellyse Perry caught her breath back, completing a low sliding catch near the ropes to get Royal Challengers Bangalore the first breakthrough, than Smriti Mandhana waved her in. Perry hadn't picked up a wicket in four bowling attempts previously in WPL 2024 and bowled all of six overs for 51 runs. But the RCB captain had an inkling, backed by some homework.

S. Sajana, Mumbai Indians' hero from the opening night with a [her]first-ball, last-ball six and their makeshift opener in the illness-forced absence of Yastika Bhatia, was just beginning to free her arms against Sophie Molineux with three boundaries off the left-arm spinner in the space of four balls in the PowerPlay. Mandhana decided to re-introduce pace and Perry cramped Sajana for room first ball to induce an edge. The ball lobbed up but the two converging fielders at extra-cover and point lost it in the lights. Sajana also survived the last delivery of the over when she drove a full ball uppishly that nearly carried to mid-off. That aside, the sight of Perry getting the ball to seam back in sharply and trouble the batter in between those two close shaves was what made Mandhana persist with the Australian for another over. Or as it would turn out, bowl her out on the trot.

After Sophie Devine leaked 15 in the eighth over, including a four and a six to Sajana, the Mumbai opener drilled a half-volley from Perry through mid-on for yet another boundary. However, the 33-year-old made a brilliant comeback to shatter her stumps with one that nipped in from good length. New batter Harmanpreet Kaur, who had last played a blinder of a knock in MI's sensational last-ball win on an adjacent pitch two nights ago, ended up dragging an inside edge onto the stumps to fall for a golden duck.

Amelia Kerr blocked out the hat-trick ball, but didn't last very long thereafter. Off Perry's next delivery the Kiwi allrounder was trapped LBW, beaten on the inside edge by one that again deviated in sharply. Perry's short-ball welcome to Amanjot Kaur was neatly pulled away to the fence, but cameback to nip the threat in the bud with the ploy that was working wonders for her. Another nip-backer, another inside edge deflected onto the stumps, another victim.

Pooja Vastrakar slapped a four down the ground and past the bowler, who hit back with yet another wicket - her fifth of the night. The off-stump was uprooted, and so were a bunch of records as her RCB teammates got together in a huddle for the head-pat.

Nat Sciver-Brunt had survived an LBW appeal and DRS referral in that opening over from Perry because it nipped back in so sharply to miss the leg stump entirely. Eventually, the MI vice-captain became Perry's sixth scalp, off the last ball of her spell. Once again it was the seam movement that beat her bat as the ball thudded into her pads plumb in front. Even a review couldn't save Sciver-Brunt, or MI, who catapulted to 113 all out in the penultimate over.

Perry didn't get a wicket in the first nine balls she bowled, in fact, but at the end of her quota of 24 she had registered the first-ever six-fer and, by extension, the best bowling figures of WPL's brief history in an astonishing spell of 4-0-15-6.

By the time she was done with the ball, Mumbai had slipped from a very promising start of 65/0 halfway through the ninth over to a bothersome 82/7 with Perry having a hand in all seven dismissals thus far. But that wasn't the last of Perry for a weekday crowd of 24,000-odd at the Feroze Shah Kotla. She returned with the bat in hand in the furth over of RCB's modest chase and with three wickets falling cheaply, held one end up with her 40* in an unbroken 76-run partnership with Richa Ghosh. By the time Perry truly wrapped up for the night, she had single-handedly put a 'Q' against her team's name in the standings.

The art.
The art. ©BCCI

Incidentally it was Perry, the seamer who had laid the foundation for this playoffs qualification - a skill of hers the world hasn't seen more of since the resumption of women's cricket post COVID-19.

In her 93 T20 appearances since the beginning of 2021 - across internationals, WBBL and WPL - Perry's bowling workload has steadily declined, part due to the excess bowling resources in the Australian set-up. Nonetheless, the allrounder had sent down only 132 overs prior to her heroics against MI on Tuesday, claiming 39 wickets off them for 989 runs, including her only WBBL five-fer. Perry's economy of 7.42 in this period is a significant climb from her career mean of 6.45 for the 207 wickets across her 307 T20 caps.

To break it down further, Perry hasn't been called to bowl 14 times in the 31 matches Australia Women have played in this period. On other occasions, she's sent down a combined 25 overs, bowling more than two just once - against South Africa in Canberra last month - and has only 11 wickets to show for.

"Australia might have missed a trick there, haven't they,?" Mumbai Indians head coach Charlotte Edwards quipped at the post-match media interaction.

As Perry put to rest the murmurs over her declining reputation as a T20 bowler on Tuesday with a WPL first, among those tipping their hats off to the allrounder was the captain of the side Perry picked up a 4/20 on T20I debut against and her Sydney Sixers' coach where she recorded her maiden T20 fifer (5/22) just last November. Edwards was effusive in praise of the Australian she once unabashedly called "the greatest female cricketer we're ever going to see".

"I'll still stand by what I said five years ago," the 44-year-old reiterated. "She is the greatest player that I've seen play the game with that energy and she's unbelievable person as well. We're very lucky to have Ellyse in our game and be such a great role model.

"I've had the privilege of working with her at the Sydney Sixers in the last couple of years. And what I admire most about Ellyse is the fact that it doesn't matter if she's playing club cricket, or WPL or international cricket. She plays it the same way and that's really highly commendable and something I absolutely love. She had a great day today and hopefully she won't have such a good day on Friday [Eliminator].

"But yeah, I think we are obviously watching greatness. And, I think she'll be around for a bit longer yet," Edwards added after her team's seven-wicket defeat.

Mandhana was a proud captain after RCB made the WPL 2024 knockouts and, in a way, completed a redemption arc after a forgetful inaugural season. "Someone with her experience, you never feel like oh she doesn't have it in her," Mandhana told the media.

"Today I don't know why I just had this [feeling]. Especially around the fifth or the sixth over finished, with Sajana opening [we knew that] pace is not maybe her strength, because we've seen in the tournament hitting a lot of sixes off the spinners," Mandhana said of the tactics to bring Perry on after Powerplay.

"So just at that point, I thought maybe Pez would be a good option and I just got her in. I thought maybe one or two overs out of her would be great, but the way she started bowling was amazing to watch. Aside from today's six-wicket haul I just feel like she's been a a really good character to have in the team. Watching her a lot of the young Indians - including me actually, not just the youngsters - have really got motivated by her work ethic and the way she is just as a person... A real team player; I don't think a lot of people discuss that about her but just the way she's around the group, I think it's just brilliant and it just makes my job easier."

After the heartbreak of a 1-run defeat at the hands of Delhi Capitals despite Ghosh's pizzazz, a wounded RCB perhaps needed a dash of genius against the mighty defending champions to stay in charge of their fate. On a chilly Delhi night, their most experienced player - and arguably the sport's finest - produced just that.

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