We may as well start with a positive. Annabel Sutherland has for some time appeared to be a next-generation Ellyse Perry, similar not only in stature but in output and style. The resemblance comes most notably when batting in Tests, with the concentration and appetite to put away short-form games and take up the tempo of the longest format, hour after hour of focus in the middle.
Perry was unavailable through injury on the second day of the Women’s Ashes Test at the MCG, and Sutherland made sure that she wasn’t missed. Batting into the third session for 163, she was the biggest factor in pushing Australia to 422 for five, a lead of 252 by stumps. This made three centuries in her past four Tests, after 137 not out at Trent Bridge and 210 against South Africa at the Waca. Unflustered, for a long while Sutherland looked on track to become the first women’s player to make two double centuries. In the more expansive history of men’s Tests, doubles in consecutive innings is something only six players have achieved.
