Perry century sends early warning to England

Ellyse Perry sounded an early Ashes warning with a brilliant Women's National Cricket League century on Sunday, but it was the joint efforts of the Victorian and NSW players to save the game that had the allrounder most satisfied.

When a sudden storm struck Junction Oval, wild winds threatened to make it impossible for the ground staff to put on the covers amid heavy rain.

After the umpires stopped play, both teams had been dashing for the safety of the dressing room, but the quick-thinking NSW captain Alyssa Healy and stand-in Victoria leader Perry called their teammates back to help.

The vision of their frantic efforts, including Perry lying flat across one edge of the cover to stop it flying away, quickly went viral.

"That was really cool, I think it actually was quite special between the two teams and the ground staff, and probably in the end, getting those covers down meant the pitch was still playable in the second innings there," Perry said following play.

"Huge credit to (curator) Brad (Bishop) and his team here at the Junction who are we very fortunate to get to work with every week … they were just still exceptional conditions.

"To have such a high-scoring match in some of the weather conditions that we faced was brilliant, the outfield stayed quick, the pitch was hard and fast."

It was not the only display of camaraderie between the teams on Sunday; earlier, Victoria opener Makinley Blows was ruled out after injuring her pectoral muscle during the warm-up following the coin toss, and NSW allowed their rivals to make a substitution and bring Amy Vine into the XI instead.

Perry was more circumspect when reflecting on her batting performance following a 26-run defeat, with her 120 from 94 balls not enough to see Victoria chase a revised 256 from 35 overs.

Nonetheless, it was an impressive display featuring 10 fours and four sixes, following an aggressive start in Friday's match that ended on 12; and after a WBBL campaign where Perry did not reach her highs of previous seasons, scoring 358 runs at a strike rate of 91.32.

"It was okay... I think in those circumstances you probably reflect on that and wonder should I have gone (harder) earlier, should we have gone earlier?" Perry said of Sunday’s innings.

"Because we didn't get the result. So, it was okay, but I think (more) importantly, you want to be in a position to win games for the team as a group.

"We just didn't have the partnerships at any stage to really press our claims, because we saw at the end there we accelerated quickly, but I think we just left it a bit late."

On the weekend England named their squad for the upcoming CommBank Ashes, Perry was not the only Australian player to impress.

On Sunday, Ashleigh Gardner found form for New South Wales, scoring 57 from 54 deliveries.

On Friday, it was Rachael Haynes and Alyssa Healy who fired; Haynes striking 96 in her first elite match since the ODI leg of September's multi-format series against India, while Healy hit 51 in a return to form as she recovers from an elbow complaint.

For Victoria, Annabel Sutherland struck 57, while across both Women's National Cricket League matches in Melbourne Tayla Vlaeminck bowled with impressive speed and Hannah Darlington collected five wickets.

In Hobart, Nicola Carey struck back-to-back innings of 100 and 74; Jess Jonassen ripped through Tasmania to bag 5-24 for Queensland on Friday, while Georgia Redmayne shone with the bat in Sunday's clash, hitting 63.

Commonwealth Bank Women's Ashes v England

Jan 27-30: Test match, Manuka Oval

Feb 4: First T20, North Sydney Oval

Feb 6: Second T20, North Sydney Oval

Feb 10: Third T20, Adelaide Oval

Feb 13: First ODI, Adelaide Oval

Feb 16: Second ODI, Junction Oval

Feb 19: Third ODI, Junction Oval