JOHANNESBURG – Lizelle Lee says she’s got her groove back after her towering ton set up South Africa’s comprehensive victory over Thailand at the Women’s T20 World Cup in Canberra on Friday.
Lee reached her maiden T20I century in 59 balls and helped the Proteas break the record for the tournament’s highest total, scoring 195/3.
One of the game’s most devastating hitters, the 27-year-old snapped a streak of nine matches without a short-form half-century in style and feels back in peak form.
“Things haven’t gone my way since the New Zealand tour, so it was just good to get some runs on the board and get that confidence back,” said Lee.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/T20WorldCUp?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#T20WorldCUpPool B victory over Thailand.
She notched up 101 off 60 balls, including 16 fours and three sixes. #SAvTHA #AlwaysRising #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/iKwvkJu9hc
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA)
“Sune and I didn’t have a good Powerplay, we were a few runs down and we decided we had to get to 100 by the 13th over. We kept to the plan and it paid off to accelerate from that moment on.
“It’s two different things, batting in the nets and out in the middle. I was hitting the ball well out in the nets, it just didn’t come off in the middle. That does make your confidence dip.
“I think every batter needs a little bit of confidence, you can’t go out there not having any. If it’s your day, you have to go out and cash in and I was pleased to do that for the team.”
Thailand chopped and changed their attack, using seven different bowlers in the first half of the innings, but couldn’t prevent Lee from bringing up the Women’s T20 World Cup's fifth century.
Just as Thailand’s Nannapat Khoncharoenkai did in the opening game against West Indies, a lone hand came from Onnicha Kamchomphu whose 26 stood alone in a total of 82 all out.
With three heavy defeats from their first three games at Women’s T20 World Cup level, Thailand have a final opportunity to record a maiden win against Pakistan.
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Skipper Sornarrin Tippoch didn’t hold back in her criticism of her side’s performance and felt her side failed to take their practice against extreme pace into facing Shabnim Ismail.
“We were disappointed with that performance. We didn’t bowl well, we didn’t field well and particularly we didn’t bat well,” said Tippoch.
“We’re a bit flustered when Lizelle came at us, so we never had a chance to find our lines and lengths. We’ve got to find a way of correcting that moving forward into the next games.
“We’ve faced Ismail’s speed of bowling when we’ve practiced in India. We didn’t feel intimidated by the pace, we’ve faced it before, it was probably more the atmosphere and occasion.
“It’s different facing it in practice and moving into a real-life situation.
“Teams are going to come at us hard at this level, we’ve got to step up in this respect, improve our fielding and be a bit more tidy when we’re in the field.”