Lizelle Lee and Sarah Taylor combined to create ‘an amazing day’ for the Surrey Stars.
Lee and Taylor hammered half-centuries as the Surrey Stars claimed a crucial victory over Lancashire Thunder in the Women’s Cricket Super League on Tuesday.
Lee scored a brilliant 37-ball 70 and shared in a 94-run stand with Taylor for the second wicket as the Stars posted a commanding 167-8. The Thunder fell short of that total by 55 runs, allowing the Stars to move to within a single point of the vital third spot in the six-team table.
Lee hit 11 boundaries in her innings, including six hefty sixes, while Taylor was slow only in comparison, crunching eight fours on her way to a 37-ball 51. Put in to bat first, the Stars never really felt the sting of the early loss of Bryony Smith, dismissed by Emma Lamb in the fourth over, with Lee and Taylor going guns blazing to take the score to 110-1 in the 12th over before Lee was caught.
Most of Lee’s sixes were slog-swept over mid-wicket, and one of them only narrowly avoided hitting Ebony Rainford-Brent, the Surrey director of women’s cricket, who had tripped over a kit bag behind the ropes.
Though the Thunder did well to apply the brakes after Sophie Ecclestone dismissed Lee, the chase was always going to be tricky.
Well batted, @zella15j! ???? #SurreyStars???? pic.twitter.com/DKWjnnST5O
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) August 7, 2018
Thunder started well, with Nicole Bolton and Evelyn Jones adding 55 for the opening wicket. However, Dane van Niekerk returned figures of 3-20 to stifle them, and Thunder were bundled out for 122 in 19.2 overs.
‘It was an amazing day,’ said Lee, highlighting that it was imperative that the Stars made the most of their soaring confidence. ‘I’m just glad the girls took us over the line. I think the confidence is high. But we’ve got to take it through to the next few games.’
Talk us through this, @ejrainfordbrent ???? pic.twitter.com/6TUfUFUHMc
— England and Wales Cricket Board (@ECB_cricket) August 7, 2018
The Stars will next take on Loughborough Lightning on Thursday.
Lee has the third-highest strike rate in the tournament to date, scoring 155.73 runs per 100 balls, while Proteas Women teammate Mignon du Preez is 10th on the batting list with 129 runs at 21.50 for the Southern Vipers, at a strike rate of 116.21.
India’s Smriti Mandhana of the Western Storm is top of the run charts by some distance, with 338 runs coming at an average of 84.50 (S/R 183.69), including the only century in the series to date, having scored a 61-ball 102 against Thunder in Manchester.
The leading Proteas Women bowler is Marizanne Kapp, who has the third-best economy rate in the series at 5.14 runs per over for the Surrey Stars.
Photo: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images
