Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry: Australia Women's Greatest Batter and Greatest All-Rounder
Ellyse Perry was born on 3 November 1990 in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia. She is the only person to represent Australia in both the ICC Cricket World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup. She has played 82 Tests, 144 ODIs, and 140 T20Is for Australia Women. As an all-rounder, she has scored 5,583 ODI runs at 50.29 and taken 315 ODI wickets at 24.21 — among the best combined batting and bowling records of any cricketer in the history of women's cricket. Alyssa Healy (born 24 March 1994, Sydney) is Australia's wicketkeeper-batsman who set the world record T20I innings by a woman: 148 not out off 61 balls in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 final against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 8 March 2020 — the most watched women's cricket match in history, attended by 86,174 fans.
Women's cricket has produced two Australians widely regarded as the greatest at their respective roles in the history of the women's game: Ellyse Perry — the best all-rounder — and Alyssa Healy — the most destructive wicketkeeper-batsman. Both played in the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 8 March 2020, attended by 86,174 spectators — the most watched women's cricket match in history and the largest crowd at a women's sporting event in Australia.
Ellyse Perry: The Complete Cricketer
Ellyse Perry was born on 3 November 1990 in Wahroonga, New South Wales. She made her cricket debut for Australia at age 16 and her football debut at age 17, representing Australia in both the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2009 ICC Women's World Cup — the only person to have represented the same country in both FIFA Women's World Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup tournaments. In cricket, she is the only player in history to have scored 5,000+ ODI runs and taken 300+ ODI wickets: 5,583 runs at 50.29 and 315 wickets at 24.21 in 144 ODIs. Her batting average of 50.29 and bowling average of 24.21 in ODIs represent a combined all-round standard without parallel in women's ODI cricket.
Alyssa Healy: 148 from 61 Balls in the World Cup Final
Alyssa Healy was born on 24 March 1994 in Sydney, New South Wales. In the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 final against India at the MCG on 8 March 2020 — International Women's Day — Healy scored 148 not out from 61 balls: the highest individual innings in Women's T20 International history and one of the most destructive batting performances in any format of women's cricket. She hit 19 fours and 7 sixes. Australia scored 184/4 and dismissed India for 99 to win by 85 runs. The match was attended by 86,174 fans — surpassing the previous world record for a women's sporting event at an Australian venue. Healy's 148* from 61 balls had a strike rate of 242.6 — the highest by any T20I batter scoring more than 50 runs in a Women's T20I final.
Australia Women: Six ICC Women's T20 World Cup Titles
Australia Women have dominated the ICC Women's T20 World Cup since its inaugural edition in 2009: they have won six of the eight editions through 2023 (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2023). In the Women's ODI World Cup, Australia have won seven titles. Their sustained dominance is built on professional structures — Australian women players were the first in the world to be placed on full-time professional contracts by a cricket board (Cricket Australia, from 2017) — and a talent pool that includes not only Perry and Healy but Beth Mooney (one of the best left-handed ODI batswomen in history), Meg Lanning (8,403 ODI runs at 52.52, 17 centuries), and Pat Cummins' era-equivalent in women's bowling: Megan Schutt and Beth Mooney. Australia Women are the most successful team in ICC tournament history across both formats of women's cricket.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ellyse Perry the best all-rounder in women's cricket history, and how does her record compare to the men's game?
Ellyse Perry's ODI record — 5,583 runs at 50.29 and 315 wickets at 24.21 in 144 matches — is statistically the greatest all-round ODI record in women's cricket history by a significant margin. The closest comparison is Shakib Al Hasan in men's ODIs (7,000+ runs at 35+ and 300+ wickets at 29+) — Perry's averages (50.29 batting, 24.21 bowling) are superior to Shakib's in both departments, though men's ODI cricket is contested against stronger oppositions in all 10 Full Member nations. In women's cricket, the consistent bowling standard varies more widely between the top nations (Australia, England, India, New Zealand) and the rest. Perry's batting average of 50.29 places her among the top three women's ODI batters ever; her bowling average of 24.21 places her among the top five women's ODI bowlers. The combination is unique: no other player in women's ODI history averages above 45 with the bat and below 28 with the ball across 100+ matches. In the men's game, the comparable all-round profile is Imran Khan or Kapil Dev in their prime — both averaged 35–50 with the bat and 20–28 with the ball, but across far fewer ODIs.