Jemimah Rodrigues celebrates the Indian win.
Credit: PTI Photo
Navi Mumbai: Jemimah Rodrigues has been the life of the Indian dressing room. Wherever she is, be it with friends, team-mates, family, at airports, in hotels, she brings positive energy and enlivens the atmosphere.
Always smiling, the 25-year-old Mumbai right-handed batter could come across as a happy-go-lucky-girl. But, deep inside, she is a fierce competitor, determined to succeed and win cricket matches for India.
Sitting drained after an energy-sapping unbeaten 127 on Thursday night, a knock that eliminated defending champions Australia and took India to the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup final against South Africa, Rodrigues was anything but cheerful. She was so emotional that she tried hard to control her tears but gave in while addressing the media.
Asked if her knock was a fitting reply to the Aussies, who had the previous highest successful chase in the league stage and India obliterated, Rodrigues said: “Whichever team came to the semifinals, it would've been the same reply from our team because we don't want to play the team, we play the moment and win that moment.”
Towards the latter half of her knock, Rodrigues was often squatting between overs, and between deliveries, catching up with breath. “I was praying. I was talking to myself because actually I had lost a lot of energy. Since I was tired, I was thinking if I should go for the shots now or take it deep. That was one learning for me also to just stay there towards the end. I was talking to God because when I can't carry myself, he always carries me.”
Indeed, Rodrigues’ prayers were answered as she rode on three ‘lives’ during her otherwise career-best knock for India in all formats. Rival captain Alyssa Healy dropped her twice, on 60 and 82 while Kim Garth grassed her on 106.
Rodrigues, who went in at No. 3 in the second over and batted for three hours and 20 minutes, believed India were always going to chase the target of 339. “I knew they were 30 runs short and DY Patil Stadium is such a pitch. I’ve been a part of three chases against Australia where we were going at a run a ball and lost from there. Those moments taught me a lot and I wanted to be there to finish it off. I just played to see ‘India win’ on the board at the end. That was my only motivation, not to play for my hundred or for my fifty,” she said.
For one who began her maiden World Cup campaign with a first-ball duck and had two noughts in her first three innings, it has been a reality check.
A teary-eyed Rodrigues said: "I was going through a lot of anxiety at the start of the tournament. I used to call my mom and cry. Almost every day I've cried in front of Arundhati (Reddy). There was Smriti (Mandhana), who helped me. Radha (Yadav) has always been there for me. I'm so blessed to have friends I can call family that I didn't have to go through it alone and it's okay to ask for help. Everyone stood by me and believed in me. When I was dropped from the team, that really hit me. I wanted to go out there and just do things that my team won. I kept reminding myself that. This knock is very special for me and I'm saving one more for the final."