The crowd of 42,618 at the DY Patil Stadium – led by the ‘Bucket Hat Cult’, a group of women’s cricket fans who have made a name with their creative chants at India’s matches this home season – were on with one of their chants for Deepti: “Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to watch Deepti bowl all day!” In a tense scenario, Deepti with the ball is like the fixed deposit in your bank you can count on. And, she’s already picked up two wickets.
Deepti tosses one up and Perry is quick to use her feet to skip down the track to belt the ball well over the leaping fielder at long on. The build-up of tension in the Australian dugout dissipates. A hush falls over the stadium, marking the moment that clinches the game for the visitors.
Perry hit another six at the DY Patil Stadium – a slog-sweep over deep square leg – one that finished the game with her unbeaten on 34 off 21 balls to level the three-T20I series 1-1. An apt end to the match for someone who often shuns the spotlight.
Following a spate of injuries in the last few years, Perry hasn’t bowled much but she remains a key fielder, often manning the hotspots in the outfield like the arc from deep backward square leg to deep midwicket.
On Sunday, she found herself perfectly positioned at deep midwicket to catch a crisp pick-up heave from Smriti Mandhana. And then again when Harmanpreet Kaur top-edged a sweep. Hazy skies, floodlights, the cheers from the crowd – nothing came in the way. Off the final ball of the Indian innings, she fired in a sharp throw to catch Deepti short at the striker’s end. “I like her as a person; she is the best allrounder,” Deepti would say later about Perry.
Garth was then cut away by Jemimah Rodrigues for a boundary but she soon won that battle. With two strikes in her first two overs, double-international Garth, who made her Australia debut on their last tour of India in December 2022 after initially playing for Ireland, had set the tone early.
“I played out here at DY a fair bit and learnt a lot in the WPL [for Gujarat Giants],” Garth said. “[I] tried to learn the best I could from those conditions. It is not always super nice to bowl here with the small and fast outfields and flat wickets. I just need to try and keep the stumps in play as much as possible but also have a plan B and plan C when things don’t go your way.”
Early in her career, Garth, also an allrounder, looked up to Perry and was part of the same team – Sydney Sixers – in the Women’s Big Bash League in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
“I was lucky enough to play with Pez when I played in WBBL02 and WBBL03, and coming into that side I was super excited to be in the same team as her and be around her and spend a bit of time around her. Everything she has done on the field speaks enough for itself.
“It is pretty cool what she does off field as well and continues to inspire young boys and girls. She has just been so awesome for the women’s game, and I am sure we’ll see her continue to do the same in years to come.”
On an evening where even Annabel Sutherland and Georgia Wareham picked up two wickets each, Garth returned 2 for 27 and was adjudged the Player of the Match, after which Perry ensured Australia had reason to celebrate her landmark day.
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo