Ellyse Perry: Getting out for 99 is a ‘bummer’ however life goes on

Ashleigh Gardner and Annabel Sutherland then demonstrated Australia’s formidable batting depth in a seventh-wicket stand of 77, however when Lauren Bell’s first supply with the brand new ball prised out Gardner for 40, the groups went to the shut evenly matched on 328 for 7.

“It was just a great tussle,” Perry mentioned on the shut. “Importantly, it was a nice way for us to finish at the end there, after a pretty tricky session after the rain delay.

“If each groups take a look at it, I believe they’d be fairly proud of as we speak in numerous areas, after which there’s in all probability different areas the place one workforce obtained the higher hand over the opposite. So yeah, I believe that is an important day of Test cricket, if it seems like that.”

For much of her 153-ball stay, it was business as usual in Ashes Tests for Perry, who compiled a career-best 213 not out against England at Sydney in November 2017, before bossing their most recent Test in England, at Taunton in 2019, with twin scores of 116 and 76 not out.

One player, however, caused her more bother than the rest of England’s attack. Filer touched speeds in excess of 75mph on debut after her coach, Jon Lewis, had said before the match that she was bowling “with extra tempo than in all probability anybody else within the nation”. And she seemed to have snagged a fairytale first-ball wicket when Perry, on 10, was pinned on the pads and given out lbw, only for Perry’s review to confirm a big inside-edge.

She wouldn’t be denied that maiden wicket for long, however, inducing a slash to gully from Beth Mooney at the end of her third over. And when she returned in the afternoon for her third spell, Filer landed the big fish. Perry, looking for her hundred, was lured into the drive and hurried by some extra lift and bounce. Nat Sciver-Brunt at gully made no mistake.

Asked if the landmark had been playing on her mind, Perry insisted that she’d been thinking about “nothing particularly”.

“Like each different ball, it is simply a possibility at a specific second in time, and I’d had a extremely nice tussle with Filer the entire time. I believed she was extraordinarily spectacular as we speak on debut and introduced the sport alive at totally different factors.

“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.”

With the competition coming sizzling on the heels of the epic ultimate day of the opening Mes Ashes Test at Edgbaston, a wholesome crowd of 5,545 turned out at Trent Bridge because the Women’s Test returned to a significant venue for the primary time since 2001, with Hove, Worcester, Wormsley, Canterbury and Taunton having hosted Ashes contests within the intervening twenty years.

“I really enjoyed today, to be out there and to be a part of it,” Perry mentioned. “To have a great atmosphere with the crowd, which just shows how much the game’s come along, and how much quality there was in the game today, with bat and ball, was just awesome.”

Much of that high quality was supplied by England’s Sophie Ecclestone, who bowled 28 consecutive overs both aspect of the rain break, to say the day’s greatest figures of three for 71 in 31 overs. That included the essential wicket of McGrath, bowled by a magnificence for 61 to finish her daunting century stand with Perry, then two extra in three balls as Jess Jonassen and Alyssa Healy joined a mini-collapse.

“It’s probably quite unique, if I think about the Tests that I played in over the years, to just have one frontline spinner in the bowling attack, and that probably just speaks volumes of how incredibly good Sophie Ecclestone is,” Perry mentioned. “She’s the pre-eminent spinner in the world, really.”