In the 33rd over of the chase, Jemimah Rodrigues had run out of gas. Batting on 82, having been on the field 50 overs before that, Jemimah slog swept Alana King – a shot born of weary limbs, a mind under pressure, emotions pressure-cooked – straight up in the air. Alyssa Healy ran across and failed to hold on.
Jemimah took a moment, and scripture came to her: Stand still and God will fight for me. This was not a desperate cry for help, although that would have been perfectly justified in a moment when body, mind and soul have been stretched to the limit. It was Jemimah recognising a moment, placing herself in the larger scheme of things and becoming the vehicle that would deliver.
Jemimah stood tall, for three hours and 13 minutes, facing 134 balls to score an unbeaten 127 in a World Cup semifinal against the best team of all time. She celebrated neither her 50 nor her 100, because by now Jemimah was in the zone. This was no longer about her; it was about doing what was needed for team and country.
In cricketing terms, statistically, Jemimah’s innings is right up there with the best played when you consider the match situation, the context, the conditions, the opposition and the occasion. In historical terms, it is a companion piece to the greatest knock played in an ICC knock-out match: Aravinda de Silva’s counterattacking 66 against India in the semifinal of the 1996 World Cup.
Jemimah’s presence at the crease – busy, purposeful, defiant, dogged, calm, charged up – as Harmanpreet Kaur fell, opening up the wounds of India’s perennial weakness, lacking the mental toughness to win the key moments against strong opposition, did more than seal one end up.
Her single-minded focus on hunting down the target set up Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh playing blinders. Each batter could be their best self, play precisely the knocks the team needed in the moment. And their doing so unlocked a second wind in Jemimah, allowing her to tap into reserves she may not have known existed in her.
Jemimah willed herself to go on, what would traditionally be called putting mind over matter, the mental toughness that male athletes typically talk about. This was more: it was not overcoming through sheer will alone; it was self-empowerment through surrender to the strength of the collective.
She did not deny her mental state or overcome it; she channelled it into an innings for the history books that created a truly transformative moment. Jemimah powered her team’s greatest victory in the sport, but that paled in comparison to what history will look back at as the moment that changed the arc of Indian women’s cricket.
This was no less than Kapil Dev’s India of 1983, or Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in 2001 against Australia. And it had been birthed by a 25-year-old guitar-strumming, highachieving, big-dreaming individual who had been dropped from the team in the same tournament.
By someone who was a teenager standing at the airport in Mumbai, waiting for the Indian women’s team to return after their loss in the 2017 World Cup final in England.
When victory was sealed and the cup of joy had run over, Jemimah extracted herself from the safe embrace of her teammates to face the bright lights of the world. “I want to thank Jesus, I could not have done this on my own,” she said.
She did not express gratitude to an ephemeral higher power or reference the almighty: Jemimah was her 100% authentic self and connected with the God of her choosing, of her imagination.
Jemimah thanked her parents, present at the ground, and blew kisses to them. Only last year, Jemimah had her honorary membership to Khar Gymkhana revoked because rumours spread that her father, Ivan, was using the club’s facilities for ‘religious activities’. The baseless allegation that he was using club premises to ‘convert’ the ‘vulnerable’ was enough for swift action to be taken, and the persecution she was subjected to online, including rape and death threats, from extremist elements was enough to break someone.
And yet, she endured and reached a place from which she could thank her parents in front of the entire world, in the greatest moment of her life. The tears of relief streaming down Jemimah’s face in the moment did not blind her to the struggles she faced. “I have cried almostevery day through this tour,”Jemimah conceded. “I was notdoing well mentally.”
In the post-match press conference, she went further. “I’ll be very vulnerable here,” Jemimah began. “Someone who is watching this might be going through the same thing. Nobody likes to talk about their weakness. I used to call my mum and cry, letting it all out. When you’re going through anxiety, you feel numb. You don’t know what to do. You’re trying to be yourself.”
Jemimah thanked her teammates for checking on her, for standing silently at her net sessions, for believing in her when she couldn’t.
No male cricketer has displayed this level of strength through vulnerability in the public glare, and Jemimah has set down the marker. On the field and off it, she lifted everyone around her, with her fierce strength and gentle wisdom. Jemimah touched the world and changed the universe, all by her tiny self; she’s just too humble to realise it now.
Jemimah took a moment, and scripture came to her: Stand still and God will fight for me. This was not a desperate cry for help, although that would have been perfectly justified in a moment when body, mind and soul have been stretched to the limit. It was Jemimah recognising a moment, placing herself in the larger scheme of things and becoming the vehicle that would deliver.
Jemimah stood tall, for three hours and 13 minutes, facing 134 balls to score an unbeaten 127 in a World Cup semifinal against the best team of all time. She celebrated neither her 50 nor her 100, because by now Jemimah was in the zone. This was no longer about her; it was about doing what was needed for team and country.
In cricketing terms, statistically, Jemimah’s innings is right up there with the best played when you consider the match situation, the context, the conditions, the opposition and the occasion. In historical terms, it is a companion piece to the greatest knock played in an ICC knock-out match: Aravinda de Silva’s counterattacking 66 against India in the semifinal of the 1996 World Cup.
Jemimah’s presence at the crease – busy, purposeful, defiant, dogged, calm, charged up – as Harmanpreet Kaur fell, opening up the wounds of India’s perennial weakness, lacking the mental toughness to win the key moments against strong opposition, did more than seal one end up.
Her single-minded focus on hunting down the target set up Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh playing blinders. Each batter could be their best self, play precisely the knocks the team needed in the moment. And their doing so unlocked a second wind in Jemimah, allowing her to tap into reserves she may not have known existed in her.
Jemimah willed herself to go on, what would traditionally be called putting mind over matter, the mental toughness that male athletes typically talk about. This was more: it was not overcoming through sheer will alone; it was self-empowerment through surrender to the strength of the collective.
She did not deny her mental state or overcome it; she channelled it into an innings for the history books that created a truly transformative moment. Jemimah powered her team’s greatest victory in the sport, but that paled in comparison to what history will look back at as the moment that changed the arc of Indian women’s cricket.
This was no less than Kapil Dev’s India of 1983, or Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in 2001 against Australia. And it had been birthed by a 25-year-old guitar-strumming, highachieving, big-dreaming individual who had been dropped from the team in the same tournament.
By someone who was a teenager standing at the airport in Mumbai, waiting for the Indian women’s team to return after their loss in the 2017 World Cup final in England.
When victory was sealed and the cup of joy had run over, Jemimah extracted herself from the safe embrace of her teammates to face the bright lights of the world. “I want to thank Jesus, I could not have done this on my own,” she said.
She did not express gratitude to an ephemeral higher power or reference the almighty: Jemimah was her 100% authentic self and connected with the God of her choosing, of her imagination.
Jemimah thanked her parents, present at the ground, and blew kisses to them. Only last year, Jemimah had her honorary membership to Khar Gymkhana revoked because rumours spread that her father, Ivan, was using the club’s facilities for ‘religious activities’. The baseless allegation that he was using club premises to ‘convert’ the ‘vulnerable’ was enough for swift action to be taken, and the persecution she was subjected to online, including rape and death threats, from extremist elements was enough to break someone.
And yet, she endured and reached a place from which she could thank her parents in front of the entire world, in the greatest moment of her life. The tears of relief streaming down Jemimah’s face in the moment did not blind her to the struggles she faced. “I have cried almostevery day through this tour,”Jemimah conceded. “I was notdoing well mentally.”
In the post-match press conference, she went further. “I’ll be very vulnerable here,” Jemimah began. “Someone who is watching this might be going through the same thing. Nobody likes to talk about their weakness. I used to call my mum and cry, letting it all out. When you’re going through anxiety, you feel numb. You don’t know what to do. You’re trying to be yourself.”
Jemimah thanked her teammates for checking on her, for standing silently at her net sessions, for believing in her when she couldn’t.
No male cricketer has displayed this level of strength through vulnerability in the public glare, and Jemimah has set down the marker. On the field and off it, she lifted everyone around her, with her fierce strength and gentle wisdom. Jemimah touched the world and changed the universe, all by her tiny self; she’s just too humble to realise it now.
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