‘Greatest of all time’: Ellyse Perry makes more cricket history with absurd feat

Ellyse Perry continues to make cricket history as the allrounder, along with Megan Schutt, helped Australia defeat New Zealand in the women’s T20 World Cup in the UAE. Australia remain the only undefeated team in Group A at the World Cup having defeated Sri Lanka in the opening match, before recording their 10th straight victory over rivals New Zealand.

The Aussies were left disappointed with the total of 8-148 off 20 overs having dropped six wickets for 69 runs. However, the Aussies were ruthless with their bowling and managed to keep their opponents to just 89 runs. While the Aussie felt their score was below-par, it shows the dominance of the team with 148 the highest total of the six matches played so far in Sharjah.

New Zealand lost the last nine wickets for just 34 runs with captain Alyssa Healy singling out Megan Schutt for her economical bowling. “We could have been smarter with the bat at the end, but we came out really well with the ball and I’m really happy with that,” captain Healy said.

“Megan Schutt has been wonderful, but I thought the whole attack tonight was unbelievable.” Schutt finished with figures of 3-3 and was player-of-the-match having turned the game as New Zealand struggled to accelerate their run-rate. Annabel Sutherland was also in on the wickets having taken 3-21 off four overs.

New Zealand captain Sophie Devine credited the Aussie bowling for keeping the line and length tight, which forced the batters to push for runs with silly shots. “When we were bowling we strayed a little too far from the stumps,” Devine said.

“In the field we were a little sloppy. With the bat we need to play some more courageous shots. We needed to have a good start, and we let the run rate creep up too much.”

Ellyse Perry makes T20 history at World Cup

Beth Mooney was the standout batter for Australia have top scored with 40 off 32 balls. However, Perry’s valuable 30 runs of 24 balls helped Australia get off to a roaring start. And her 30 runs helped her surpass 2,000 runs in T20 cricket. Perry became the first Australian to reach the landmark run total and also take 100 wickets in the format.

She becomes just the fourth women’s player to ever achieve the feat. Fans already recognise Perry as the greatest female cricket of all-time, but she continues to leave the cricket community in awe of her endless record-breaking feats.

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Schutt also made cricket history. Schutt’s three wickets took her past South African Shabnim Ismail for the most wickets ever taken at T20 World Cups. The Aussie sits on 46 wickets, three clear of Ismail and will look to extend her record with Australia looking to secure qualification to the knockout stage with a win in their next Group A game.

Incredibly, Perry sits fourth on the list with 40 wickets. However, Perry hasn’t bowled an over for Australia so far in this World Cup in the UAE.