Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The bruises on Mark Perry’s shins tell the story. From the time his daughter Ellyse was old enough to grip a cricket bat, the pair have toiled for hours in the practice nets at suburban cricket grounds all over Sydney’s lower north shore; him bowling, her batting, both of them fashioning a technique now considered among the best in the world. Sixers captain Ellyse Perry has taken her game to another level this WBBL season. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer People walking past often notice the magenta helmet and pads and wonder who it might be. Then she'll cream one of her father's throwdowns and they will whisper, "Oh, that's Ellyse Perry". Father and daughter were there in the twilight gloom at St Ives on Thursday, diligently working on her game ahead of Saturday’s Women’s Big Bash League semi-final at Drummoyne Oval in which Perry’s Sydney Sixers meet the Melbourne Renegades. She did this in addition to her training sessions throughout the week for the Sixers. Nobody who knows Perry would be surprised by this: her countless hours of preparation, especially in the nets with her father, are why she continues to redefine the women’s game — even if it comes at a personal cost for the person at the other end. Textbook technique: Ellyse Perry has honed her craft over countless hours of training. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer


“She always hits back into the nets so we don’t have to chase the ball two miles down the road,” Mark, a former all-rounder for Sydney University, explains. “But occasionally she will play a cover drive that will pop off the piping and the ball doesn’t slow down. I’ve been tagged a few times by those ones. Had a few in the middle of the shins. That’s unpleasant. They can come from anywhere and occasionally I can’t get out of the way. But I love it — because it means she’s hit the ball well.” When I sit down with Perry after an exhausting session at the SCG earlier this week, the first thing I notice are the bruises on her legs. She can’t remember how she got them but they’re a reminder of the pain most cricketers endure. 'He has to put up with some bad moods from me when I’m not hitting it as I’d like': Perry with dad Mark, who has been her constant training partner. “One of my favourite parts of training is doing it with Dad in the local nets,” Perry says. “When I do that, I feel like a kid again. We never argue. He has to put up with some bad moods from me when I’m not hitting it as I’d like. He’s very placid. He’s not a pushy parent at all. The fact that his shoulder is still in one piece is a miracle.” Perry, of course, established herself long ago as a rare sportsperson, having played international cricket and soccer at the age of 16 before going on to play in world cups in both sports. This summer, in this WBBL season, as balls don’t just clear boundary ropes but sail into the stands, she’s ascended to another level. Last weekend, Perry became the first player in the Big Bash — male or female — to reach 2000 runs after she plundered an unbeaten 67 against the Renegades. It secured the minor premiership and set up Saturday’s semi-final. She has scored 690 runs, including two centuries and five fifties, this season.


Her 59-ball hundred against the Perth Scorchers at North Sydney Oval last month stands out for those who watched it, not least her father. Run machine: Perry passed 2000 career Big Bash runs this season - the first cricketer, male or female, to do so. Credit:AAP “There was one shot where she gave herself a little bit of room, a little shimmy, and played it like it was a seven-iron down the ground,” Mark says. “Another a little wider, off an off-spinner, she hit like a bullet over long-off. It just went and landed 15 metres over the boundary. It meant she was doing a number of things technically well: hitting the ball in the contact zone, keeping the front shoulder in place instead of spinning out of the shot. All the things we talk about.” Mark Perry doesn’t seem like the type to do it but he must’ve felt tempted to light up a cigar and say, “I love it when a plan comes together”. We wanted to go over the top more. Check drive straight down the ground, over the bowler’s head. It certainly has improved. Mark Perry Father and daughter had spent hours in the nets prior to this season trying to hit — not slog — long and straight. The growing professionalism of the women’s game means players are getting stronger and hitting further because they can spend more time in the gym — but that doesn’t matter if the technique is sloppy. “We wanted to go over the top more,” Mark says. “Check drive straight down the ground, over the bowler’s head. Trying to get her to hit straighter when she’s going over the top. Keeping her front shoulder in place longer so she can hit straighter down the ground. It certainly has improved.”


Perry had a point to prove this summer, too. Last year, she was shunted down the batting order to No.7 for Australia at the World Twenty20 in the West Indies because her strike rate wasn’t as strong as others. She faced just 49 balls for the tournament. Australia collected the trophy but Perry, for a change, was a bit player. “She wasn’t getting her runs in T20 quick enough,” former Australian captain Lisa Sthalekar, who now commentates for Channel Seven, says. “But all good players want to be involved in the game at all times. They want to have an impact. Her development as a batter has changed over the years because she’s so technically correct. In the T20 game, you have to find different areas. Champions: But Perry was a bit-part player in Australia's World T20 victory last year. Credit:AFP "Things are clicking now. She’s setting herself up on off-stump, I’ve noticed. A traditional batter would take centre. She’s hitting a lot of balls straight down the ground but she’s able to work balls off middle to leg and get it behind square. The poor ball is definitely getting put away. In the past, she might’ve have punched it to mid-wicket or cover. Now she's scoring off every ball.” Reckon batting at No.7 for Australia annoyed her? “She’ll give you nothing,” Sthalekar laughs. “She’s very diplomatic.” Ask Perry if what happened at the World T20 spurred her to bat with more ferocity while opening the batting for the Sixers this summer and she is, yes, diplomatic.


“I honestly don’t mind,” she deflects. Come on. Fire up. You’re being diplomatic. “I’m not,” she laughs. “If you had asked me that question six years ago, my answer would’ve been really different. I don’t view my career through that lens anymore. It’s about getting a cohort of people together to win stuff. That’s what I remember.” A year before her century against the Scorchers, Perry scored 213 in the four-day Ashes Test against England, also at North Sydney Oval. It took 374 balls but it was like she’d patiently waited her entire life to sculpt an innings like it. “I just enjoy batting," she says. "I love it. It’s a craft and I love plugging away at it. I guess getting to do that in a match was the ultimate pleasure to be out there and do something I’ve been doing for a long time.” Double ton: Perry acknowledges the crowd after reaching 200 in the Ashes Test against England in 2017. Credit:AAP Says Sthalekar: “She was the only player who had trained to bat as long as she did that day. And it showed in the middle. She’s not the type of player who gets bored at training. When we’ve gone to the subcontinent, and we get net bowlers in, she’s the first one in and the last out. She could spend a whole day there. She never gets tired.”

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