Cricket: Suzie Bates scores historic ton

Suzie Bates.

Suzie Bates has continued her blistering start to the English Super League with a ground-breaking century the Southern Vipers.

White Ferns captain Bates flew to an unbeaten 119 off 72 balls to set up her team's 46-run win over the Loughborough Lightning in Derby.

It is the first century scored in the six-team Twenty20 league which is two rounds into its second season.

Her score was just short of the highest in the women's Twenty20 international game, when Australian Meg Lanning reached 126 against Pakistan three years ago.

Bates' innings, which featured 15 fours and four sixes, dominated the Vipers' 180-2.

In what proved a key moment, the 29-year-old was dropped when on 39 by star Australian international Ellyse Perry off her own bowling.

She then turned chief destroyer with the ball, taking 3-15 with her medium pacers and claiming a brilliant boundary catch as Loughborough were dismissed for 134.

The Vipers' second win sends them to the top of the standings in league they won last year. Bates was also a stand-out in their opening nine-wicket defeat of the Western Storm, taking 2-8 with the ball before smashing 47 not out off 31 balls.

- AAP