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Sport
Glenn Moore

Perry finally has her day at Edgbaston

Australia's Ellyse Perry has led Birmingham Phoenix to victory on her return to Edgbaston. (Jason O'BRIEN/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

It will have been a bittersweet experience for Ellyse Perry watching Australia win the Commonwealth Games gold at Edgbaston earlier this month.

A back injury that prevented her bowling, and doubts over her scoring rate, meant one of the sport's stars was in the squad, but not in the team. So while she won a gold medal, and contributed off the pitch, it would not felt quite as hard-earned as if she would like.

England's domestic Hundred competition has thus provided, if not compensation as such, a chance to show what she can do.

And boy, is the 31-year-old taking it.

Having made 58 off 31 balls in Birmingham Phoenix's opening match in Cardiff on Saturday she found herself back at, of all places, Edgbaston on Monday.

She responded with an unbeaten 39 off 28 as Phoenix beat Trent Rockets by eight wickets with ten balls to spare.

In successive balls Perry smashed England veterans Katherine Brunt and Nat Sciver for a pulled six and lofted driven four.

That delighted skipper Sophie Devine, who for years has been in the opposition with New Zealand.

"She is such a fantastic athlete," said Devine. "The way she has evolved her game as well.

"I know she has her critics around the shorter formats but what she has done these last two games she's shown her class is permanent

"The way she was able to manage that run chase. A few of the players were maybe getting nervous on the sideline but knowing she is out there, and had full control of it, is full credit to the player she is."

Perry was joined in the successful Fire team by Sophie Molineux, who did not even make the Aussie Games squad. Molineux took 2-22 off her 20 balls and should have had Nat Sciver (31) stumped as well.

Both players also took excellent catches.

Adding spice to their victory was the fact compatriots Alana King and Elyse Villani were on the Rockets team.

Villani made 33 and King - the only one of the quartet to actually play for Australia in the Games - took 1-18 off her 20 balls.

But despite their efforts Rockets were well beaten, the match going awry for them from the moment Villani was out, caught by Perry off Georgia Elwiss (2-16). They collapsed from 1-70 to finish on 9-116 off their 100 balls.

Perry later took another excellent catch to dismiss the dangerous Katherine Brunt (9).

Emily Arnott took 3-19, including the wicket of King (1) brilliantly caught over her shoulder by Devine.

The pair swapped roles when Phoenix batted, King catching Devine (16). The leg-spinner then dismissed Evelyn Jones (11) but Saturday's hat-trick hero could not snare Perry who took Fire to victory in tandem with England wicket-keeper Amy Jones (44 off 32).

Jones said of batting with Perry: "She has a world of experience and kept me calm throughout and her big shots at the end were very helpful."

In the commentary box Eoin Morgan, England's World Cup winning captain, was full of praise for the example Perry set on the field.

"Ellsye Perry going from cow corner to cow corner... She's a senior international player, an absolute hero of the game, and she is putting in hard yards like that. That sets a really high standard for everybody else in the team," said Morgan.

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