England quick puts heat on Perry

England Women’s fast bowler Katherine Brunt says the pressure is on Ashes rival Ellyse Perry to keep producing with the bat after the allrounder was again the standout for the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars in Tuesday’s loss in Taunton.

Recap & highlights: Stars begin Ashes with a loss

Perry extended her world record run of consecutive one-day international half-centuries to six with a fighting 78 in the first Women’s Ashes match of 2015.

During that run, the blonde allrounder has scored 432 runs at a staggering average of 143.67 to become Australia’s form batter in the 50-over format.

Perry also scored an unbeaten 93 and claimed two wickets in the Southern Stars warm-up match in Taunton Vale two days ago at her new position at second-drop.

With the top-order failing in the first ODI, it was left to Perry and veteran batter Alex Blackwell to resurrect Australia’s innings, and chief destroyer Brunt says the 24-year-old will start to feel the pressure if her team continues to rely on her to save the day.

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Brunt talked candidly after England's win // Getty Images

"Yeah. She'll feel it," Brunt said after England’s four-wicket win.

"She scored pretty much all their runs in this game and in the warm-up game the other day, even though [today] she was out on 7, 9 and 33.

"Having her running around for as long as she did is tiring.

"I can tell you as an allrounder it's not good to have to open the bowling after you've batted(for a long innings like that)."

While Brunt believes Perry was lucky to last long enough to continue her prolific run-scoring streak, the Australian refutes the claim the expectation to score the majority of her side’s runs rests on her shoulders.

Perry backs the Southern Stars powerful middle-order to perform, which includes three of the top 10 ODI batters in Meg Lanning (3rd), Jess Cameron (9th) and Blackwell (10th), who are all higher than Perry in 13th spot.

"No not at all," answered Perry when asked if she felt the burden of scoring Australia’s runs in the 50-over format.

"The world’s best batter bats ahead of me.

"I really enjoy going out there. Looking out our line-up we’ve got an unbelievable batting order.

"Everyone’s capable of making runs on their day. I’ve been lucky in the last couple of games to be able to continue well.

"I just really enjoy being out there and batting with the quality batters we’ve got."

Ellyse Perry top-scored for the visitors with 78, extending her world-record run of consecutive ODI half-centuries to six (restrictions apply)

Perry says England’s ability to score singles on the lightning fast outfield was one of the many areas where the hosts outplayed the tourists, who were playing their first competitive match in nine months.

"I don’t think we rotated the strike that well today," Perry said.

"It was actually quite easy to find the boundary, especially if the ball was pitched up, hitting straight through a shot it would race away down the ground.

"One of the crucial things we got stuck in after we lost early wickets was not rotating the strike.

"Again that’s something England did really well in that middle period with (Natalie) Scvier and (Lydia) Greenway.

"There’s a bit we can take out of it and a bit we can learn playing in these conditions."

Both England and the Southern Stars will travel to Bristol for the second of three ODIs on Thursday.

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