An innings of a lifetime. A generation-defining World Cup win. Jemimah Rodrigues' raw, real self. Aadya Sharma, at the venue, recounts the brilliance of her epic 127* against Australia.
Just under an hour after the final ball was bowled, Jemimah Rodrigues sat solemnly in the DY Patil’s press conference room, cameras yet to go live. It was a rare break from the wildly intense spectrum of emotions she had just burnt through, producing a century of titanic proportions. She sat, tired, eyes swollen from the tears shed in the presentation ceremony. She couldn’t hold them back in the press conference either.
For years and years, Australia have been the unsurmountable summit of women’s cricket. Between their last two World Cup defeats – two India wins in eight years – stretched an unbeaten streak of 15 matches.
All of that cracked open in one evening. A total of 338 – the highest-ever in a World Cup semi-final – wasn’t enough. The great Alyssa Healy dropped a sitter. Five of their seven bowlers went wicketless. They conceded 82 off the last 51 balls. The mighty really fell hard.
It was a sight that will refuse to leave the mind: 11 yellow dots, sprinkled across the field, even as a sea of blue descended on Rodrigues, fallen to her knees, physically and mentally consumed. Every bit of her energy was channeled into 127 runs, marshalling a chase that will define this team forever, and describe a significant chapter in the sport’s history.
In the aftermath of that joyously chaotic screaming, crying and hugging, Rodrigues gathered herself enough to put words to her feelings, breaking down again and again.
“Today was not about my fifty or my hundred, it was about making India win.”
2nd Semi-Final, India Women vs Australia Women
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India’s victory shook a nation into celebration, but it also gave Rodrigues a massively personal win. Here was a cricketer, crushed by mental demons for at least a month, simmering in the bubble of a World Cup. Rodrigues batted six times on either side of being dropped. That one time on the bench significantly worsened the already rampant anxiety in her system.
On Thursday, Rodrigues found her moment of reckoning. Shafali Verma’s all-too-hyped comeback didn’t go to plan, bringing her into the middle in the second over. Mid-innings, she had gone for a shower, and wasn’t told about her position until five minutes before she walked out to bat. For the first four times at the World Cup, Rodrigues had batted at five, crossed thirty twice and dismissed for a duck twice.
Now, for the second time in a week, she got a go at three.
The pitch had plenty of batting help in it, but it was the opposition that loomed large. She faced 11 balls for her first four runs, sizing up the attack and countering the early movement. Then came the first boundary, clipped aerially to midwicket. But there was no hurry in her shots. Rodrigues knew she had to dig in long.
But she also wasn’t letting the required run-rate creep up. In the eighth over, she contorted herself for a ramp against Kim Garth over Healy’s head. Early in the year, that’s how she had been bowled against Ireland, bringing to a close her first international ton. To even attempt beating Australia, you had to play out of your skins.
Rodrigues was aided by the familiarity of her “home” ground, and the feeling that Australia were below par.
“I knew they were 30 runs short,” she later said, “and DY Patil is such a pitch, any score is chaseable. So, I just knew that all my thought process was that I just had to be there, because the runs will come, but I need to be there to get those runs.”
With rain in the air through the afternoon and humidity over 80%, Rodrigues had to battle out the physicality of a long run chase too. There were moments she slumped to her knees between balls, and was even checked on by the umpire, but went deeper and deeper into a zone that was hard to break for Australia.
Unlike Phoebe Litchfield’s boundary-filled 119, the nucleus of Rodrigues’ innings was built by 57 singles and seven twos, and boosted by 14 boundaries.
For the level of calm Rodrigues exuded in the middle, her honest admission later in the night was genuinely moving. This year, she had batted everywhere from three to six. Against England, she was benched for an extra bowler. The uncertainty tugged at her mental demons.
"It was a lot, you know, before a few games also, I used to call my mom and cry, cry the entire time, let it all out," she said in the press conference. "Because when you are going through anxiety, you just feel numb. You don't know what to do”.
Rodrigues fought through with an ecosystem of friends within the dressing room. Mandhana helped. Arundhati helped. Radha helped. There would have been many behind the scenes. But in the middle, it was Harmanpreet Kaur who shared the grunt work with her. That 167-run stand brought realism to India’s dreams.
But this is where the real work was set to begin. India had been notorious for their failure to close key moments. Ten days ago, they had lost to England by four runs, which Smriti Mandhana blamed emotions for taking over. As Australia’s stronghold loosened and cracks started to appear, Rodrigues and the rest stepped up.
“When I reached my 100,” Rodrigues said, “I didn't celebrate because at that moment I thought of it and I thought I looked at a hotel right here [towering behind the stadium] and I said: tomorrow morning, what would make me happier? Would it be a 50? Would it be 100? No, it would be India winning. And I want to wake up with that. I want to sleep with that smile that we are playing the finals and I'm waking up to get ready for a final. That kept me motivated, too.”
The clarity of thought shone through Rodrigues’ batting too: the cuts and sweeps were pristine, as always. Quick length-reading against spin was always her forte. The only lapse was perhaps a top-edged sweep, which Healy made a meal of. And another from Tahlia McGrath. Fortune, brave, etc.
When the chase hit patches of slack, Rodrigues infused it with a release shot. With 63 needed off 48, she crunched a sweet reverse sweep. With 19 needed in 16, she plucked out the ramp again. All through the chase, Rodrigues ran, put her head down, and beamed a thumbs up to her partner. The resolve was unshakeable.
At 48 overs and three balls, she finally fell to her knees, the mechanical numbness of her pursuit making way for the emotional realisation of her prize.
“I didn't play for my 100,” she said. “I didn't play to prove a point at number three. I didn't play for my 50. I just played to make sure India win, at that board, I wanted to see India win at the end and that was my only motivation.”
It’s one of Indian cricket’s most significant wins ever. A team, shook by three losses on the bounce, questioned on their very existence by a vitriolic subset of the cricketing ecosystem, has found its rightful place in the final. On Sunday, a new World Cup winner is guaranteed. No more of the Australia-England duopoly. New Zealand will have some company.
But it will also be another chance for Rodrigues to complete her redemption arc, and she’s promising more: “I think it would be my best knock so far. I'm saving one more for the finals.”
The ever-smiling exterior had been hiding cracks of darkness within. It broke her, but couldn’t stop her from pulling off a momentous feat. There she stood, ice-cold inside the arena, honest and vulnerable outside it. Real. Relatable. Rebuilt.
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