Ellyse Perry loves Test cricket. She possesses every quality that a player needs to play the longest format. She is calm, patient, and technically profound. Over the years, watching Perry bat in a Test has been nothing short of a joy. Perry, the Test cricketer, is adored by plenty. So is Natalie Sciver-Brunt. The English all-rounder has gained praise for being a calm head in absurd situations where England often needed her the most. Throughout their Test career, these two players have redefined what an all-rounder can achieve.
Then there is Pooja Vastrakar. Since her international debut in 2017, she has never really found a permanent place in the Indian setup. Her 2018 T20 World Cup hopes were dashed with a knee injury. Before that, she went through a devastating ankle injury. She did travel with the team in the 2020 edition of the T20 World Cup and had to carry drinks throughout the tournament. On her debut Test against England in 2021, she toiled hard but could only get one wicket.
Then came the pink-ball Test against Australia where she was a third pacer behind Jhulan Goswami and Meghana Singh and rattled every Australian batter and dismissed Meg Lanning and Tahlia McGrath. She was instrumental in reducing the hosts to 241 for nine in the first innings, but even in that fixture, nobody could disturb Perry's resilience as she remained unbeaten in both innings. The lack of Tests meant Vastrakar had to wait for a long time for her chance with the red ball again.
That opportunity eventually came, that too on home soil. England, while chasing the total of 479 with two days still left in a Test, ignored the message of 'never surrender' from their former Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Three balls into her first spell on a bright morning at the DY Patil Stadium, she broke Sophia Dunkley's resistance to get her caught at gully.
Sciver-Brunt, who scored fifty in the first innings, walked in with the weight of the team on her shoulders. Well before she could get settled, Vastrakar had a delivery up her sleeve with Sciver-Brunt's name on it. A pitch-perfect length ball outside off stump that made Sciver-Brunt get on the front foot. She had left a gap between bat and pad and boom. The off-stump went for a spin. Within a blink of an eye, England's vice-captain was castled. One of the immovable objects could not last a delivery against the brute force that was Vastrakar.
There were murmurs in the media box after Sciver-Brunt's first ball wicket at the DY Patil Stadium about how no batter could have played that ball, and maybe somehow, Perry - the monk, could have potentially found some answer to that delivery. Just maybe.
Five days later, many geared up to watch Perry at the iconic Wankhede in Mumbai. She walked in with her faded helmet and a bat that simply said "Staple", as if indicating how important she is for Australia. Unlike Sciver-Brunt, Perry survived the first ball she faced from Vastrakar as a thick edge went past the second slip for a four. Golden duck averted. Vastrakar had to reload again.
And reload, she did. Another length ball just outside off stump that came right in, and with a gap between bat and pad, Perry's middle stump was gone. The woman who couldn't get out no matter how hard the bowlers all over the world tried was gone on the second ball. And that was the confidence that the hosts needed to bundle out Australia for 219 before finishing the day with 98/1 on the board.
"Unlike DY Patil Stadium, this wasn't that easy a wicket to bowl on. Our bowling coach said that we have to work harder for our wickets here and we have to bowl wicket to wicket. We have to set up the batters. The first inswinger I bowled to Perry when she came in, got me her wicket. From all the videos we have seen, they (players from England and Australia) find it difficult to face the delivery coming in. So the plan was to get our wobble seam right because the batter finds it extremely hard to play those deliveries," Vastrakar simplified her plans after a crucial four-wicket haul on day one.
Before these two series, Sciver-Brunt and Perry were the two batters who could have potentially asked a lot of questions in the team management's mind, but Vastrakar answered it by storming in like an unstoppable force against the immovable object. The question she posed was so intimidating that no one, not even the class toppers of the format couldn't come up with an answer.
"Vastrakar bowled extremely well. The ball she got Pez with was an absolute peach," Tahlia McGrath, Australia's vice-captain told media after the day's play. "She was someone we specifically spoke about as a batting unit. The length she bowls at is perfect for Test cricket. It's just relentless. We were commenting that she is almost robotic, that she runs in and hits the spot time after time and puts so much pressure on the batters. In the second innings, she is going to be the one that we need to get our plans right as well," McGrath added.
The contest between Test cricket's immovable object and unstoppable force will resume later in the match. After all, there is still another inning to go where Perry might face Vastrakar again. For now, Vastrakar has emerged as the undisputed winner.