Ellyse Perry made 213 not out — the highest score ever in a Women's Ashes Test — while also taking 7 wickets in the match to produce the greatest all-round performance in Women's Test history.
Ellyse Perry had been the dominant player in women's cricket since the 2010s — a fast bowler who could bat at number six and make centuries, or a batsman who could open the bowling and take five-wicket hauls. The 2019 Women's Ashes Test gave her the stage for a career-defining performance.
Perry made 213 not out off 347 balls in a performance that lasted 515 minutes. She hit 28 fours and 2 sixes. England's bowlers, led by Katherine Sciver-Brunt and Sophie Ecclestone, had no answer.
In the match, Perry also took 3 wickets — giving her figures that, combined with the batting, produced the finest individual all-round performance in Women's Test history.
Australia won the match. Perry was named Player of the Match and the series. The innings confirmed her as the first women's cricketer to genuinely cross over into mainstream sports celebrity — her performances making the back pages of general sports newspapers, not just women's sport sections.
Perry reaching 150 — highest Women's Ashes score
213 not out — Women's Ashes record
7 wickets in the match combined — best all-round Women's Test performance
February 2019
Women's Ashes Test, North Sydney Oval
Perry's innings
213 not out off 347 balls — Women's Ashes record
Match result
Australia win — Perry also takes wickets in match
Ellyse Perry's Women's Ashes innings is to women's cricket what Lara's 400 is to men's — a performance that pushes individual excellence to an extreme that restructures how the game is perceived.
Perry's 213 helped legitimise Women's Test cricket for audiences who had previously ignored it. The Women's Ashes now attracts full grounds and substantial television ratings in Australia — a transformation Perry's sustained excellence is central to.
Australia vs West Indies
1960-12-14
The first tied Test in 86 years of cricket history — Australia and West Indies finished level on 737 runs each after five days of breathless cricket in Brisbane, producing one of the most dramatic finishes the game has ever seen.
India vs Australia
1986-09-22
Twenty-six years after Brisbane, cricket produced only its second tied Test — Dean Jones's heroic 210 through crippling heat and Dean Jones's fever, Ravi Shastri's unbeaten 48 and India needing 2 off the last over, only for Maninder Singh to be out lbw off the final ball.
Australia vs South Africa
1999-06-17
Lance Klusener smashed Australia to the brink of elimination, then ran out Allan Donald off the penultimate ball to tie the match — but Australia advanced to the final on superior run rate, ending South Africa's greatest World Cup campaign in devastating fashion.