Helen Maynard-Casely at the WACA

Australia conducted the second day of the Test to near perfection, keeping India in the field through the heat of the day and batting at an aggressive rate – resulting in the tourists finding themselves batting in the dreaded twilight session. The loss of the top order without finding a lead has India needing something extremely special on the third day to remain competitive in this Test and the series.

The WACA scoreboard during the tea break.

It is probably returning on the second day where it really sinks in that you are playing Test cricket. Muscles are sore from the day previous, and you find yourself again in the field wearing whites (hopefully with your name on) and battling on. The game becomes more of a journey, and instead of one destination, there are virtual (and real) milestones to mark the progress.

As Ellyse Perry returned to the crease, after sitting on 43 overnight, she would have known that only 30 runs separated her from two auspicious markers. The first was to be only the second Australian Woman to reach 1000 test runs, and the second would be that she would only need three further runs to pass Karen Rolton’s career total of 1002 runs. Perry was not to allow the Indian bowlers to deprive her of this feat, and working with her overnight batting partner Annabelle Sutherland looked unruffled as the session progressed. Not only did they both seem unfazed by the 39 degree heat (running three effortlessly) they each used boundaries to glide past their half centuries. As a result of the momentum, Perry broke both 1000 runs and then became the highest test run scorer for Australia in a matter of balls.

But even as Perry reached this lofty position, there would have been mutterings in the crowd that it was unlikely that she would hold this record for the 16 years that Rolton did. As she stagnated just past the total, Sutherland accelerated to meet her score – and when Perry was dismissed LBW by Deepti Sharma it was perhaps a nuanced passing of the guard. Sutherland continued in her own hero’s journey, and by just after the tea break brought up her century with a whippy pull shot to backward point, reaching the milestone of the first Australian woman to score four test centuries at just 24 years old, and with many years ahead to pass Perry’s new Test runs mark. She batted on through the heat, with her Test average climbing with her live score, peaking at over 100 before she fell also to Sharma’s bowling – punching a ball too high and into the hands of Harmapreet Kaur.

Annabelle Sutherland returns to the dugout after scoring 129, an innings that cemented herself into the Australian Test records. Image Credit Mike Edelstein.

The Indian spinners worked through the heat of the day, and though giving Sutherland leeway, they had otherwise restricted the Australian middle order. Ashleigh Gardner only scored 1 run, Talia McGrath 13 runs and Beth Mooney just 19. But Australia had built a lead, and by the time India’s pace attack – headlined by debutant Sayali Satghare – finished the tail, late afternoon shadows had consumed the ground. Satghare finished the innings 4 wickets for 50 runs, when she forced Lucy Hamilton to push a ball into Sneh Rana’s hands (the latter redeeming herself after an awkward drop off Mooney’s second ball).

You have to wonder though, if this was the trap Australia had set. Throughout their batting innings each of the players had batted relatively aggressively (considering the few Test innings these players get) to the point that you had to wonder if this was the game plan. To get 100 or so ahead, and to put India back into bat in the twilight session. If so, it worked perfectly, Australia’s reply of 323 to the Indians’ first inning totals of 198 – meant that they had a 125 run cushion, with tricky pink ball batting conditions facing India.

Bowling pace under the lights, Australia had a dream start when Darcie Brown sent Smriti Mandhana’s leg stump tumbling, with the India opener only on 2 runs. Verma fell in short order, nicking Lucy Hamilton’s delivery to Beth Mooney. India’s batters struggled on, with only Pratika Rawal proving resilient. She had to watch helpless as four more of her batting partners fell to the Australian pace attack, Hamilton picking up the wickets of Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh in the 24th over. Sneh Rana joined Rawal and survived at the crease up to stumps, and India finished the day still 20 runs behind the Australian total with 4 wickets remaining.

An odyssey of a day in Test cricket at the WACA, but hard to go past the controlling tactics of the Australia team. They will return tomorrow likely to clinch the 4 points from the Test victory and the series win.

Helen (Crystallised Cricket) is a writer based in Dharug and Gundagarra country, and here is writing about a game played on Whadjuk country. She acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands that she writes from.