The former South African wicket-keeper batter Lizelle Lee announced her retirement from international cricket in July 2022 and has shown that she still has a lot of cricket left in her. She stayed back with the Hurricanes, after joining the franchise in the 8th edition of the tournament in the year 2022.
The Hobart Hurricanes brought her back into the set-up by picking her in the WBBL overseas draft on 1st September 2024. Rightly so, she took the ongoing 10th edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) by storm by smashing the highest individual score (150* off 75 balls) in the history of the competition. She surpassed Grace Harris from the Brisbane Heat, who scored a sensational unbeaten century (136* off 59 balls), against the same opposition (Perth Scorchers) in the previous edition on 22nd October 2023.
Lizelle had below-par returns (7, 18, 38, 4, and 4) in five innings for the Hurricanes this season, before that whirlwind innings against the Perth Scorchers. However, before the start of WBBL 10, she played an instrumental role in Hobart Hurricanes being crowned as the champions of the inaugural T20 Spring Challenge 2024. She ended the tournament as the leading run-scorer of the inaugural edition with 252 runs at an impressive strike rate of 139.22 and a sensational average of 50.40 in six innings with the bat for her side. Her tally of runs included one half-century and an unbeaten century (112* off 70 balls) against the Adelaide Strikers on 12th October 2024.
One for the history books!
Lizelle Lee’s WBBL record 150* included 12 ridiculous sixes 😱
Enjoy it all 🎥 #WBBL10 pic.twitter.com/TbpABk1Mr6
— Weber Women’s Big Bash League (@WBBL) November 10, 2024
Lizelle now has the joint 2nd highest (4) number of centuries, alongside the Perth Scorchers skipper Sophie Devine in the history of WBBL. She shattered multiple records en route to her blistering knock, carrying her bat throughout the innings against the Perth Scorchers led by skipper Sophie Devine. She also holds the record for the highest Women’s T20 score (169* off 84 balls) while representing the North West in a professional T20 match against Mpumalanga in October 2013.
Apart from that, in an under-19 one-day interprovincial match in December 2010, she amassed a mind-boggling 427* accounting for a staggering percentage of around 62% of the total team runs (690/1) Vs KEI-under-19.
Lizelle also now holds the record for the most number of sixes in an innings (12) in the history of the WBBL. She surpassed Grace Harris’s tally of 11 which she achieved in the previous edition of the tournament against the same opposition (Perth Scorchers). It is also the overall 2nd highest number of sixes in a Women’s T20 innings after Kiran Navgire powered 16 maximums for Nagaland against UP in 2022. Notably, Lizelle smashed more sixes (12) than the Hobart Hurricanes collectively struck in the inaugural edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in 2015.
Loves all things female cricket
