The wonders of Ellyse Perry, Australia's unparalleled machine

Between her dismissal in the 2015 Test and her next fall of wicket today, she has racked up 1,654 runs in ODI cricket at an average of 66.16

There is something about greatness that has to be seen to be truly believed. There is an intangibility to perfection that, without bearing total witness, can never be fully appreciated.

Until you’ve touched the summit of Everest, it is merely a feat of nature, an object of geography, an impalpable record-breaker. It is only when you look out from atop its peak that your eyes are fully attune to its sheer phenomenon.

And then, there is Ellyse Perry. A mountain of the women’s game, a statistical giant, an unrivalled cricketer. Yet, to judge her by numbers is almost a waste; she is by no means the first to dominate a generation, nor will she be the last.

To do justice to a unique talent is to look past the figures; it is to watch her runs, to analyse an unfailing calmness. When the demand is runs, she supplies them in abundance. Here, she waltzed to a hundred – an unassuming cinch it may have been, but that is how Perry rolls.

That she accrued her runs without alarm was to be expected; anything else would have raised a cause for concern. She is one of those players – the type whose runs you struggle to recall, despite having taken in every delivery. You know she's made a score; her side's position tells you that much. But hers are a blur. That is not to say her runs are forgettable, rather that they come along with such regularity that they seem almost a foregone conclusion.

While others might pick out a fielder and fret, Perry’s mind works on a timeless watch. If she could bat all week, one senses she would jump at the opportunity. She is a perfectionist in a world where the notion of perfection simply does not exist. It drives her towards whatever is closest to a performance without fault.

^{Ellyse Perry made 116 as Australia asserted their first-innings dominance}

To dismiss Meg Lanning and find the peerless figure of Perry striding out to replace her must be a deeply uncomfortable sight. While a fielding side will always possess a numerical advantage, bowling at the allrounder must be a lonely existence.

If she ever felt troubled here at Taunton on a slow, sad wicket – the kind that hampers the development of women’s Test cricket, she never showed it.

When the shackles appeared to tighten – she made one run in a 40-ball period at one stage, she skipped down the pitch to chip Laura Marsh over her head. When the off-spinner felt obliged to drop short in response, Perry had read her mind, waiting on the back foot to hammer her into the vacant real estate on the legside.

And then it was over. The second of silence that followed was testament to a stunned Taunton. A chanceless century ending with a tame whip to Heather Knight at mid-wicket. Perry stood; a frustrated mixture of anger and disbelief. The best don’t settle even for a second successive Ashes Test hundred - the last, of course, was a double.

Four years and 329 runs stood between the end of Perry’s innings today and her last Test dismissal at Canterbury – caught behind by Sarah Taylor off the bowling of Anya Shrubsole for 13.

A failure by her lofty standards. Even then, she responded as only she knows how; a match-winning spell of six for 32 with the ball. If she doesn’t get you with one, you can count on her for the other.

Of course, that fact – 1,436 days between dismissals – is one skewed enormously by the absurd attitude of the sport’s governing bodies towards women’s Test cricket. In a sense, it makes Perry’s record all the more impressive – that she can thrive in this red-ball format in spite of its rarity on her schedule.

Between her dismissal in the 2015 Test and her next fall of wicket today, she has racked up 1,654 runs in ODI cricket at an average of 66.16.

It is a phenomenal set of statistics but, even then, an outlook that doesn’t do justice to the world’s best player.

She is a faultless fountain; when she is on, she is on. She runs and runs.