Lizelle Lee feels that she is back to form after her stunning performance and contribution to South Africa’s massive victory against Thailand at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
One of the most devastating hitters, Lee reached her maiden T20I century in 59 balls and assisted the Proteas to break the record for the tournament’s highest total, scoring 195 for three.
The 27-year-old played continuous nine matches without scoring any half-century but feels that she is 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.
“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 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, Share on X
Thailand on the other side changed its attack. They used seven different bowlers in the first half of the innings as their strategy but still could not prevent Lee from bringing up the Women’s T20 World Cup’s fifth century.
Onnicha Kamchomphu’s 26 stood alone in a total of 82 all out. This case was similar to Nannapat Khoncharoenkai’s performance in the opening match against West Indies.
Thailand has had a real hard time coping with the game with three heavy defeats at the Women’s T20 World Cup. They still have a final opportunity to record a maiden win against Pakistan.
Skipper Sornarrin Tippoch admitted openly that her side’s performance was disappointing and that they failed to withstand Shabnim Ismail’s extreme pace.
“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.
This article was first published on ICC’s Media Zone
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