Pineapple Express: How Ellyse Perry went from stacking fifties to banking hundreds

Like any Australian baller, Ellyse Perry stacks pineapples. Which is to say, she makes fifties.

Four years ago she cracked the code, and she's piled them up ever since. Fifties, mind. Hundreds are too flashy. Hundreds get you caught.

We already know that Perry does whatever she wants. We know the stories: two gold shirts by age 16, wonder-goals in one sport's World Cup, bowling through a final with a broken foot in another's.

We know she devoted herself to batting, promoted to the top order during the Ashes of 2013. We know she never looked back.

Fifty after fifty, 23 of them in her last 35 innings in one-day cricket. Three in T20 internationals, another one in her scant couple of Test matches.

The one thing she hadn't done in international cricket was score a hundred. On Friday, by the end of day three of the Ashes Test at North Sydney Oval, she'd scored two.

A double, more accurately. The twin-patty of hundreds. The heart-attack combo. A couple of coronaries were nearly had in the crowd, as Australia's ninth wicket fell with Perry on 192.

Megan Schutt is not the most reliable of jacks, so Perry finally forsook caution. England predicted this, throwing everyone on the fence except midwicket.

Over mid-wicket Perry went, the catcher positioned for a miss-hit instead watching the pink ball soar over her through the night sky (like Tom Hanks' wife watching him go to the moon).

The crowd roared the roar of sixes. Perry went with them, celebrating hard. Helmet off, arms swinging. Until the umpire replay kicked in, finding the ball had landed an inconvenient few inches short.

At 198, she had to compose herself and try again. This time, a perfect drive, protractor-straight. Mid-on and mid-off were set well back, and utterly redundant. Up went the crowd again: a double hundred, double nice, so good they got to cheer it twice.

There was time for a couple more hefty swings before the declaration came, Perry left on 213 not out.

It was the third-highest score in women's Tests, and the best by an Australian. All this in her seventh Test match, and her second game batting in the top six. Schutt had never made a more welcome 1 not out.

It was a very different story to another blonde Australian all-rounder who made a lot more fifties than hundreds.

Shane Robert Watson used to be criticised for not converting one to the other, and in the end he believed so hard in the monkey on his back that he willed it into existence.

For Perry, the century hasn't been relevant. She hasn't had the game to chase hundreds in the shorter formats, nor the ego to contradict that game.

Her ODI glut of the last four years has involved steady rhythm. Even alongside Meg Lanning, Perry has the most technically immaculate strokes in the side.

Usually her starts involve driving crisply straight to the field, a number of times in a row. She's unflustered, absorbing deliveries without concern. She has the latitude to do this now that she bats first or second drop.

As the innings wears on, she adapts, her technique meaning that when she finds gaps, she scores boundaries. In between, she works the lesser runs and takes them fast. The package makes her an extremely valuable half of a partnership.

What Perry doesn't yet have — though you'd be foolish to rule it out — is the ability to boost her attack to more intense levels.

She can hit a six when it's in her zone, but when she's forced to go hard she doesn't look comfortable. Often she falls late in an ODI when it's time for the big shots.

Only three of Perry's 24 fifties in one-day cricket came at a strike rate above 100. In short, this means she runs out of time for milestones.

Three times she's been not out in the 90s, twice because the target ran out, once because the overs did. She typically comes in halfway through an innings: only six of her half-centuries started within the first 10 overs.

For a player who doesn't like slogging, for one who likes to build, for one who waits for the chance to play the perfect shot rather than taking the risk of manufacturing a dodgy one, Test cricket is her format.

Take the word of her father, who still helps with her training: "The way she's been taught is for this sort of cricket. I wasn't surprised with her patience, she just loves being out there."

On the second evening of this Test, Perry had been the one with composure.

It had a big-game feel, a night-time buzz, and that suited her temperament. Far from being intimidated, she was serene.

Every period of dot-ball pressure was punctured by a cover drive. Where players from both teams had crabbed and scraped, Perry was aristocratic.

She took Australia to stumps at 70 not out. There were signs of what was to come the way she started day three, not in the middle, but in her throwdowns.

Facing a low net on the outfield before play, Perry's focus was intense. Her strong forearms corded with each strike, advancing and smacking the ball into the boundary pickets.

Some ricocheted into the walkway. Kids squealed and jumped aside. Perry didn't look up. There are days when you just feel that a player is on.

"I've always enjoyed facing a lot of balls in the nets," she said later.

No doubt: by the time she was done, Amanda Wellington was left time for 10 hasty drives before having to run off and change.

Out came Perry. New day, new nerves, having to start over. Or nothing of the sort. Instead she produced more cover-drive perfection.

She then walked at Sophie Ecclestone, spooking the teenage spinner into a full toss, creaming it through midwicket. In a matter of moments, she was away.

England never got her back. Lorde's song Supercut had played as Perry walked out; she produced one to send a short ball through point.

England stacked the field against her pet shot: two in the covers, one behind point, a slip. She drove at cover anyway, finding four through the gap at gully as the bat twisted on impact.

Good idea, she thought, late-cutting the next ball through the same gap.

She was into the 90s. Ecclestone offered another donation, but few full tosses have been met with as much class, splitting the midwicket close to the bat and the mid-on set deep. As they say on Twitter: "Thread."

That meant 96 not out, her highest for Australia in any format. But we all know she wasn't done. Having batted half of day two, she would do almost all of day three.

And still, at the long break, there she was standing up in the guard of honour to mark Alex Blackwell's 250th game, still on her feet, still doing the team thing before the tough evening session.

Early under floodlights, she got a short ball from Natalie Sciver and belted the snot out of it. Later, she chased down her milestone as comfortably.

"I suppose today I just viewed it as a bit of a net session," was her charmingly downplayed description of how to bat at Test match length.

After the declaration, she was first on the ground for her bowling warm-ups. Running out. Rachael Haynes didn't give her the new ball. Surely the champ wanted it. She wants to do everything. Her day the way it was, she would have bowled someone first ball.

"It was the most special Test I've ever played in terms of the crowd, so it was a matter of doing it justice." So said Perry after play. More importantly, she'd showed the cricketing world which format does her talent justice.

Imagine what someone of her ability could have done with 30 previous Test matches. Imagine what she could do with 50 more.

In this format, Ellyse Perry doesn't have to be the Pineapple Express. She can bank granny smiths, lorikeets, Dame Nellie Melbas, making the pink ball pay out in green.