I think the solution is actually simpler than what Fletch suggested:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use diagnostics;

my @ary;  # let's avoid confusion with the $a and $b used by sort()

$ary[0]{total} = 5;  # let's avoid those silly warnings
$ary[1]{total} = 10;
$ary[2]{total} = 50;
$ary[3]{total} = 40;
$ary[4]{total} = 30;
$ary[5]{total} = 20;

my @bry = sort { $ary[$b]{total} <=> $ary[$a]{total} } 0..$#ary;

for my $x (0..$#bry)
{
    print "$bry[$x] = $ary[$bry[$x]]{total}\n";
}

__OUTPUT__
2 = 50
3 = 40
4 = 30
5 = 20
1 = 10
0 = 5
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