Perrys burst helps Australia drag India back
India 5-276 before storms stopped play
Ellyse Perry dragged herself back to somewhere near her best as Australia strove to arrest India’s first innings advance on the Gold Coast.
The threat of lightning forced the players from the field after 57.3 overs of play on day two, with India 5-276. Rain had already wiped out half of the allotted overs on the first day/night, but the pace and bounce in the pitch still offers some hope of an outright result over the remaining two days.
Punam Raut chose to walk after edging Sophie Molineux behindCredit:Getty Images
After nearly two years affected by the serious hamstring tear she suffered at the Twenty20 World Cup, Perry had worked tirelessly before the Test match to find her rhythm, in concert with the team’s bowling coach Ben Sawyer and also Mitchell Starc.
In a second new ball spell of seven overs that offered swing, bounce and enough pace to hurry India’s batters, ultimately reaping the wicket of Yastika Bhatia, Perry (1-54) helped shift a contest that the Australians had struggled to impose themselves upon.
Either side of Perry’s effort, the hosts managed to winkle out Smriti Mandhana (127), after she posted the highest ever score by a visiting batter in a Test match in Australia. They also benefited from Punam Raut’s decision to walk when getting a feather-touch to a delivery from Sophie Molineux (2-28).
Ellyse Perry after snaring the wicket of Yastika Bhatia.Credit:Getty Images
After Bhatia’s exit, which ended an innings of some promise, India’s captain Mithali Raj was run out by a superb throw and direct hit from the debutant Annabel Sutherland. Running around from midwicket, Sutherland first forced Raj to re-think her initial call for a single, and then ended her innings when the bails were sent flying.
Sutherland’s wholehearted seam bowling, seen only for one over on a rain-curtailed day one, was central to how Meg Lanning’s side gradually pulled India back after they started the day in something like complete command.
At the other end, Perry thought she had ended Mandhana’s outstanding innings when a full toss was sliced to point and Beth Mooney claimed a low chance. However on inspection of Perry’s front foot, a no ball was called, freeing Mandhana to go on to her first Test hundred with a pull shot to the rope.
The spin bowlers Ash Gardner and Molineux (a combined 3-54 from 36 overs) forced a dramatic deceleration in the scoring rate, enjoying the bounce on offer from a pitch composed of the same soil used at the Gabba in Brisbane. Ultimately Mandahan’s patience expired when she tried to drive Gardner inside out and was pouched at short cover.
A little over 12 overs later, Molineux extracted notable turn and lift out of the surface to defeat Punam, even if the umpire Phillip Gillespie did not initially think so. Lanning did not take the new ball immediately, but when she did, Perry’s exemplary spell counterbalanced some looser stuff from Darcie Brown at the other end.
At first, it seemed likely to be another unrewarded stint: Mooney dropped Raj in the gully, and then the Australians appealed a little too diffidently for LBW when ball-tracking showed the ball, while hitting Raj on the inner thigh, would still have struck middle and off stumps.
But Perry maintained her swing and accuracy, and Bhatia was to be turned around by a ball that shaped in and then held its line off the seam. Mooney was once again the fielder in question, and this time her hands, diving forward, were sure.
Raj, playing her final Test match after flagging she will retire after the ODI World Cup in New Zealand next year, looked set for a long stay. But Sutherland’s swift movement and unerring throw carried the game further towards the Australians, even if Queensland’s tropical climate threatens to have the final say as to the outcome.
Daniel Brettig is The Age's chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via Twitter.
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