Lee, Ismail help SA women cruise in T20 opener

KIMBERLEY: Lizelle Lee and Shabnim Ismail starred with bat and ball respectively as South Africa women extended their winning streak against Bangladesh, albeit in a different format, at the Diamond Oval ground in Kimberley on Thursday (May 17). The visitors are yet to record a win in the tour.

With Proteas’ regular captain Dane van Niekerk opting to rest, batting all-rounder Chloe Tryon assumed captaincy and had no hesitation in batting first after calling it right at the toss. The hosts blazed off to a solid start with openers Lee and Wolvaardt compiling 74 in the first nine overs but lost the plot after losing five wickets in the next four overs.

Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp, however, got together to steady the ship and thus, posted a challenging total for the visitors. With required run-rate hovering over six, Bangladesh needed a decent start to gather momentum, but both openers departed in quick succession after consuming a flurry of dot balls.

Skipper Rumana Ahmed and Fargana Hoque engineered a 72-run partnership for the third wicket, but the required run rate kept creeping up with both batters failing to find timely boundaries and eventually fell short by 17 runs.

The second of the three-match T20I series will be played at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Saturday (May 19).Brief Scores: South Africa Women 127 /6 in 20 overs (Lizelle Lee 46, Khadija Tul Kubra 3-23) beat Bangladesh Women 110/5 in 20 overs (Rumana Ahmed 36, Shabnim Ismail 3-19) by 17 runs.