Perry's huge century powers Victoria to entertaining win

A stellar knock of 145 off 137 balls from Ellyse Perry has set a new record for the highest score of the WNCL season and powered Victoria to a 92-run win over ACT.

But it was almost beaten by Meteors No. 3 Katie Mack who struck an unbeaten 140 off 129 balls in reply on Thursday at the Junction Oval as her side attempt to chase down Victoria's 5-354.

It was Victorian spinners Sophie Molineux (2-45) and Sophie Day (2-52) and pace bowler Milly Illingworth (2-32) who ended up leading the charge with the ball to restrict the Meteors to 9-262 after 50 overs and claim a fourth win of the WNCL season.

Perry's big hundred in the first innings surpassed Nicola Carey's 113 against South Australia scored on December 13 last year.

Later in the day, it was Mack who leaped to the upper section of the top scorers list when she struck 16 boundaries in her stunning 140 not out.

Unfortunately, none of her teammates were able to assist greatly with Carly Leeson the next highest Meteors run scorer with 25.

Earlier in the game, it was Perry who set up Victoria for a day out with the 33-year-old finishing with 23 boundaries including five sixes. 

Perry started her knock on one run off 15 balls but managed to find her groove after the challenging start.

She brought up her half-century with her first six of the game coming off her 69th ball. 

She brought up her ton off 114 balls with a four to the leg side before scoring 44 runs off her next 23 balls to complete her knock.

A Katie Mack direct-hit runout brought Perry's hit to an end in the 46th over, leaving the Australian allrounder two runs short of her highest WNCL score.

Victoria ended the innings 5-354 from 50 overs with Tess Flintoff (54 off 64) and Nicole Faltum (55 off 50) the other strong contributors.

Meg Lanning came in at No. 6 scoring an unbeaten 22 from 15 deliveries. 

Georgia Wareham coming back into the side finished 24 not out off 12 balls. 

WNCL 2023-24 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Total points PTS
1 Tasmanian Tigers Women TAS	12	9	2	0	1	0.98	0	5	43
2 Queensland Fire QLD	12	8	3	0	1	1.224	0	7	41
3 Victoria Women VIC	12	7	5	0	0	0.013	0	4	32
4 Western Australia Women WA	12	6	6	0	0	-0.113	0	4	28
5 NSW Women NSW	12	6	6	0	0	-0.105	0	2	26
6 South Australia Women SA	12	4	8	0	0	-0.063	0	3	19
7 ACT Meteors ACT	12	1	11	0	0	-2.006	0	0	4

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

PTS: Total points