- Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc now share the highest score on the test: 99
- Unwanted record developed during Women’s Test against Proteas
- Healy, 33, was just one race away from making sporting history.
- Almost the first woman with international hundreds in all three formats
- Mitchell Starc plundered 99 in the 2013 series against India
They are the undoubted power couple of world cricket, and Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc now also share a Test batting record that may never be surpassed.
Surprisingly, both have a higher Test score of 99, after Healy was dismissed by Delmari Tucker at the end of the first day of the first Test against South Africa in Perth.
It also cruelly ended Healy’s hopes of becoming the first woman to score an international hundred in all three formats of the sport.
In 2013, Healy’s husband also returned to the pavilion short of his first Test century when a nervous Starc bowled a ball to MS Dhoni off Ishant Sharma’s bowling during an away series against India.
As Healy was left wondering what could have been, a cricket fan on social media posted a notable statistic online.
They are the power couple of world cricket, and Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc now share a Test batting record that may never be surpassed.
Remarkably, both now have a higher Test score of 99, after Healy was dismissed by Delmari Tucker at the end of the first day of the first Test against South Africa in Perth.
‘Only 3,892 people have played Test cricket since 1877. Only 12 of them have a higher score than 99 in this format.
“Two of those 12 (Healy and Starc) are a married couple,” Hypocaust revealed in X.
Cricket legend Shane Warne is also among the rare dozen, after the spin king was caught with 99 runs to his name during a 2001 Test against New Zealand in Perth.
Replays later showed Daniel Vettori bowled a no-ball, meaning the on-field umpire should have given Warne a break.
Meanwhile, Healy’s ruthless nature has been revealed in the test against the Proteas at the WACA.
The skipper declared on day two with 9/575, leaving Kim Garth, who has not made a Test half-century in her career, unbeaten on 49.
All-rounder Annabel Sutherland was the star of the wild hosts, 210 off 256 balls.
It was the highest team total in women’s Tests, eclipsing the 6-569 declared by Australia against England in 1998.
All-rounder Annabel Sutherland has shown her class at the crease, scoring 210 in the Test against the Proteas.
In response to Australia’s mammoth total, South Africa finished the second day with a record of 3-67, still needing 432 more runs for the home team to bat again.
The only other players to have scored more runs than Sutherland are India’s Mithali Raj (214) and her teammate Ellyse Perry (213 not out).
Sutherland was just four races away from eclipsing Perry and setting a new Australian record, not that he cared.
“I’m very happy that she keeps that record, Pez deserves it,” he said.
“She’s an incredible player and an even better person.” The amount of time she has spent with the young women coming through is a testament to that.’
Sutherland’s heroics with the bat came just a day after she took 3-19 as the Proteas made 76 in their first innings.
He hit 27 fours and two sixes during his dazzling knock.
Australia only needs to draw the Test to win the multi-format series against South Africa.