Women's T20 World Cup 2020: Lizelle Lee's century helps South Africa thump Thailand

Scorecard:

South Africa: 195-3 (20 overs)

Lizelle Lee 101 (60), Sune Luus 61 (41); Ratanporn Padunglerd 1/19

Thailand: 82 all-out (19.1 overs)

Onnicha Kamchomphu 26 (21), Chanida Sutthiruang 13 (17); Shabnim Ismail 3/8

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South Africa completed a comprehensive win over minnows Thailand by 113 runs, thanks to a brilliant century from opener Lizelle Lee and some great bowling from Shabnim Ismail and Sune Luus who picked up three wickets each.

Lizelle Lee

A target of 196 was always going to be difficult to chase down and the South Africa bowlers made sure that the task became impossible. Barring Onnicha Kamchomphu, who showed some resistance with a fighting knock of 26, no other Thailand batter could withstand the onslaught from the South African bowlers.

Ismail was the pick of the bowlers, grabbing amazing figures of 3/8. All-rounder Luus also chipped in with three wickets as Thailand were bowled out for just 82.

Earlier, South Africa elected to bat first but got off to a poor start, losing their skipper Dane van Niekerk early. But then Lee was joined by Luus and the duo began to hit the Thailand bowlers to all parts of the ground. They added 131 runs for the second wicket and Lee brought up a fantastic century.

Some late hitting from Luus and Chloe Tyron ensured that South Africa reached a humongous 195-3 in their 20 overs.

Career-best T20I score ✅ Maiden T20I 💯 ✅ What an innings from Lizelle Lee! #SAvTHA | #T20WorldCup📝 https://t.co/9mt3hu6o6j pic.twitter.com/NQWrtAZsOy

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 28, 2020

Shabnim Ismail, Sune Luus dismantle Thailand

When you take two wickets in two balls 😆#SAvTHA | #T20WorldCupSCORE 📝 https://t.co/9mt3hu6o6j pic.twitter.com/AheFtiQFPv

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 28, 2020

Thailand needed an extremely good start in order to retain any hopes of chasing the huge target down. However, Ismail picked up two wickets in two balls and put the Thailand team on the backfoot immediately.

She then came back later on in the innings to wreak more havoc, and ended up with figures of 3/8.

Shabnim Ismail (R)

Luus also bowled really well and picked up figures of 3/15 as South Africa wrapped up the Thailand batting for just 82 runs. Lee's maiden T20I century won her the player of the match award.

Here were her thoughts after the game:

It was one of those days where everything went my way. We struggled a little bit in the powerplay but me and Luus had a partnership and that set us up. It (her attacking approach) hasn't paid off in the last few games and happy that it came off today. It gives me confidence for the next few games. That (the partnership with Luus) was amazing, we haven't batted together for a while and it was good to bat together.

Liz-Self Lee 🤳#SAvTHA | #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/w2tSlxbPDr

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 28, 2020