Ellyse Perry: Having played a role in helping Australia turn around things a bit with a solid batting effort in their second innings, Australian woman all-rounder Ellyse Perry on Saturday said her team would try and bat as long as possible on the final day and set India a 200-plus target in the fourth innings.Bowled out for 219 in their first innings on Day 1, Australia did not allow India to build up a big score from the overnight 376/7 and bowled out the hosts for 406 and a lead of 187 runs. In their second innings, they rode on a half-century by Tahlia McGrath, her second of the match, and her vital partnerships with Perry (84 runs) and skipper Alyssa Healy (66) to reach 233/5 at stumps for a lead of 46 runs.
Asked how many runs Australia think they can defend in the fourth innings, Perry said they will try to give a target of 200-plus.
“I think that sort of comes down to the context of the game in terms of how long is left and also how many runs we’ve put on the board. But I think it really matters with, you know, how long we’ve got to then bowl at India. Positively speaking, if we can get close to or over a 200-run lead, I think that at least keeps us in the game,” said Ellyse Perry, who scored 45 in Australia’s second innings.
Asked what was Australia’s strategy while batting second after getting out cheaply in the first innings, the 33-year-old Perry said the plan was to bat as long as possible.
“I guess we’ve just grown into this test match a little bit and perhaps adjusted to the conditions as we’ve done today. I think there’s a really clear plan there, obviously with the position of the game. It was just for us to bat for as long as we possibly could and just to sort of play what was in front of us without too much thinking about the track. So I think having that sort of focus on the present was really helpful for all of us. And yeah, I thought there were some really good patches and partnerships,” she added.
Perry, who became Australia’s second-highest run-scorer in Tests with 925 runs in 12 matches, overtaking Belinda Clarke’s total of 862, and is behind Karen Rolton, who scored 1002 runs in 14 matches, said she enjoyed batting with Tahlia McGrath. She praised Tahlia for her all-round performance in this Test.
“Yeah, I think she’s a pretty great Test match player. She obviously batted really well in the first innings as well. Tahlia’s approach I think is always attacking. She plays a lot of great shots. She’s a strokemaker. But today she just looked really tired. I think, in amongst some of those really great drives, like, she’s fantastically solid on defense. I thought she bowled really well. She tied down an end for us as well in our bowling innings. So she’s all around us. A fabulous player and great to have in our team. And you know, this has been a really great effort. That’s much better in terms of their contribution to the innings. I think she’s been solid through. It’s been great,” said Perry.
