Depending on which headline you caught on Friday, the day after India qualified for the finals, Jemimah Rodrigues was either India’s phenomenon or the toast of the nation. Even the iconic Amul weighed in with Jem of an innings. Regardless of what happens at the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday – and this is being written on Sunday morning—there is no going back for the 25-year-old batter from Bandra.
So many firsts and so much accomplished in the course of one Thursday night. An unbeaten 127 that took India to its highest ever run-chase of 339 in women’s cricket. Along with captain Harmanpreet Kaur and later Richa Ghosh and Amanjot Kaur, the quartet powered through a win against the formidable Australians, ending the 15-win streak of their women’s team at ODI World Cups.
Dropped from the India team ahead of the 2022 World Cup and then again just weeks ago for the group game against England, it was an evening of personal redemption for Jemi. That this should come at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, a Mumbai girl acquitting herself on home ground, only made it sweeter.
Later she said: “I didn’t play for my 100. I didn’t play to prove a point. I didn’t play for my 50. I just played to make sure India wins. I wanted to see India win. That was my only motivation.”
Along with the seemingly unstoppable tears, there was the open admission of being vulnerable, anxious and feeling the pressure. All if this coming from a core of deep authenticity that isn’t often seen in the PR-driven, scripted world of elite sport. This was a woman unafraid to display a multitude of attributes in the course of a single night—strength and athleticism, stoicism and emotion, exhaustion and vulnerability.
It was, wrote journalist Prem Panicker on his Substack post “not just a player finding form; it was a young woman reclaiming belief. Every shot, every sprint between the wickets, ever moment of composure was rebellion. A fierce rebellion against doubt, against erasure, against the quiet cruelty of being left out.”
The match, wrote senior sports writer Sharda Ugra saw the “emergence of Jemimah, centered in the eye of the storm”. Speaking on the phone from Bengaluru, she added, the 25-year-old has always been “out there”. This is a woman who doesn’t hold back, whether it’s her social media presence, posting reels about her latest dance moves, or playing the guitar or humming a few notes of a song.
But, until now, she’s never been considered a ‘great’ in the league of a Harmanpreet or Smriti Mandhana. “She was seen as a team player and a superb fielder with a great buzz of energy,” Ugra said. “But in term of performance, she was dropped, made it in and out of the team and there was no sense of what she could actually produce as a cricketer. That is what she showed at the semi-finals: Her true athletic competitiveness. It is her arrival of being a leader and a star.”
Born in 2000, Jemimah Rodrigues had a home advantage of being coached by her dad, Ivan Rodrigues, a former cricketer. In the early years, he was the one who built her abilities as an athlete and even got a school team going where the girls could train and play competitive matches.
Six months short of 13, Jemimah made her Under-19 debut during the 2012/13 season. She still could easily have gone into hockey, having played for the Maharashtra Under-17 and Under-19 teams. But cricket was the way forward when she was called up to the cricket team in 2018.
It has hardly been a smooth ride. “When you are dropped you have a lot of doubts,” she said in an earlier interview. “When you come back in, it’s a lot more pressure.”
But just as much for her cricketing skills, Jemimah has been winning praise for her courage in putting her vulnerability on public display. Breaking down several times in her post match press conference, she spoke about the mental battle and severe anxiety that would lead to bouts of crying while on the phone with her parents or close friends.
She was unapologetic, saying she hoped her story would help others with similar struggles. Thanking all who had stood by her, family, coach, friends, she reminded all of us, “It’s ok to ask for help.”
Jemimah’s tears come from a place of strength, says Sharda Ugra. “It’s almost like a female power, all this pent-up emotion, the stoicism during play and then, the release.”
Watching India’s semi-final win from the stands was a small group of Indian women cricket players from the 1970s and 1980s. Among them was Nilima Joglekar who had played in the first women’s inter-state nationals in Pune back in 1973. She said she was ‘overwhelmed’ by how far women’s cricket had come since those early days.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” she said. “Players like Jemimah will raise the bar and encourage even more girls from smaller towns to try their hand.” For these girls, she said, “the sky is the limit”.
That’s it for this week. If you have a tip, feedback, criticism, please write to me at: namita.bhandare@gmail.com
