Did You Know: RCB Star Ellyse Perry Also Played Football For Australia And Scored a Goal in FIFA World Cup

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Royal Challenger Bengaluru (RCB) women's team star Ellyse Perry is one of the icons on the international cricket stage as the talented all-rounder has gone on to win eight ICC titles and a Commonwealth Games gold medal till date.

Apart from the team awards, Perry has won several individual honours in her cricket career, including the women's cricketer of the decade (2010-2020) and the ICC women's cricketer of the year (Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award) twice in 2017 and 2019.

While she has dominated the field in cricket with both bat and ball, did you know the cricketer also played football and has scored a goal in the women's FIFA World Cup for the Matildas in 2011.

Perry, who is one of very few Australians to have represented her country in two different sports, and the only person ever to have played for Australia in both the FIFA World Cup and the ICC Cricket World Cup.

Perry made her football international debut, much like the start of her cricket career, at 16 - playing her first match for Australia against Hong Kong in 2007. Having debuted for both the national cricket and football team at the age of 16, she is the youngest Australian to play international cricket

The cricket all-rounder, who made her first cricket World Cup appearance in the 2009 T20 World Cup, made her first FIFA World Cup appearance during the 2011 tournament in Germany, scoring the Matildas' only goal in the 3-1 quarter-final loss to Sweden.

The talented Australian earned 18 caps and scored three goals for Australia between 2007 and 2012. Starting out as a defender, Perry convered to a midfield, as she went through her club football journey, representing Central Coast Mariners, Canberra United and Sydney FC.

Perry, however, called it quits to football in 2014, to concentrate solely on cricket, where she has exploded, winning eight world titles with Australia, 11 Women's National Cricket League championships with NSW, and two Women's Big Bash League titles with the Sydney Sixers. She recently also played a key role in Royal Challengers Bengaluru's first title win.

Perry, who bowls medium pace and bats at the top of the order, won the second season of the Women's Premier League (WPL) with RCB and also won the Orange Cap (top run-scorer award) for the season with 347 runs.