To put it simply, Perry is all about pitching at the right areas and letting the conditions do its bit. That is how it has always been.
***
Amy Jones came into the Ashes with high hopes because she earned her spot after two great performances in West Indies. Amy isn’t their first choice, Sarah is. To get into the Ashes playing XI is itself a great thing for Amy but her dreams and the hopes were demolished by Perry, who made Amy her bunny but she didn’t have to do anything extraordinary to get Amy out. It was the pressure, it was whom she was against, it was nervousness.
A pull which wasn’t there, a clipping shot which spotted the fielder, A lofted shot that went nowhere. Three innings and three poor dismissals. We have to give it to Perry though for setting her up, well, literally.
***
Perry’s romance with Canterbury is a great story, and every time she steps out there, the story only gets better. Possibly, she reached the best this time.
Coming back to the match, Perry had the green signal from Lanning to pitch the ball up, and with conditions going by Perry’s way, the ball did the talking.
Perry runs hard, pitches the ball at the middle and leg. Beaumont knew it was going to be there. Undoubtedly, the best batter of England in recent times knew what she had to do; clip away on the leg side. The idea was right, and she would have played that shot millions of time but Perry being Perry, threw the ball that skid her way through and Beaumont was a spectator just like us but with the bat while she was hit on the leg.
After pinning Beaumont, a little bit of variation from Perry is all that she needed to dismiss Sarah Taylor.
Coming into the crease after losing both the openers, Sarah definitely saw her opportunity for the long run. It was important for her, for the team, but unfortunately, it was Perry’s day. A simple good length delivery pointed at the fourth stump forced Taylor to go for defence but the conditions dragged the ball to go pitch and go straight, a little bit of swing did the trick for Perry as the ball kissed the edge of Taylor.
Three in Two overs now.
****
There is nothing in this world is so beautiful than watching Schutt setting up a batter with her swinging deliveries. This time, the victim was Sciver. From the wide of the crease, a good length delivery that nipped further in to hit the pad of Sciver who stood between the stumps and the ball. If she wasn’t there, the ball would have hit the middle of the middle stumps.
***
When it is your day, it is really going to be your day. A nothing delivery can fetch you wicket, in fact, the wicket of the opposition team’s captain. A wide outside off delivery that Knight would hit 10 out of 10 times on a normal day but on Perry’s day, things were different. She played nothing shot, and the ball travelled to Healy. All Knight can do is to look at her bat and shake her head.
With losing wickets at one end, Wyatt would want to stay there till the end. She wanted to play defensive strokes but that wasn’t her game and she couldn’t last for four deliveries as Perry’s full delivery which kept coming in, kissed the pads of Wyatt who was trying to play a leg glance.
Five from five overs now. Minutes later, Perry was finally taken off the attack.
***
After five overs of rest, Lanning brought Perry back.
Perry gave Shrubsole her own treatment as the scrabble seam worked well for Perry to get the better of Shrubsole. An inside edge, onto the pads that rolled to hit the stumps.
Six wickets now.
In the middle, Schutt removed Fran Wilson, bowled, who was looking good.
***
At exactly at 22.2, Perry had young Ecclestone hitting the full one on the offside, slapped but the ball didn’t go over the in-field as Gardner who got excited even before catching the ball, did well to catch it to give Perry her 7th wicket.
Perry finished with the spell of 10-4-22-7.
Jonassen finally grabbed a wicket, later on, dismissed Marsh, plumb in front.
With all smiles, the team let Perry lead the side while leaving to the dressing room.
Even after achieving greatness every time she stepped out on the field, what makes Perry differ from the others is how she underplays. Tell her she is one of the best all-rounders ever, she would say,
“You can call me that but I don’t think so.”
Tell her she bowled well for picking up seven wickets, she would say no, it was just her day and nothing else. That’s what Perry does. Sometimes, underplaying motivates champions. Sometimes, it makes them run for the goal, for the love of the game. We would never know how they keep doing that but as long as they are doing it, it is good for the game and it is important.
