Indian women’s cricket team star batter Jemimah Rodrigues raised her stocks after her match-winning knock against Australia in the Women’s World Cup semi-final on Thursday. With India chasing a tricky 339 under the lights, the 25-year-old played one of the finest knocks of her career, smashing 127 off 134 balls to help India reach the final. Jemimah’s knock had triggered a social media storm as fans criticised the Amol Muzumdar-led team management for dropping her during the match against England in the league phase.
Jemimah was benched for the game in favour of an extra bowler, but India eventually lost the game. While the move was criticised by fans, former India pacer Varun Aaron saw the positive side of it.
Aaron praised head coach Muzumdar for the call, saying that it ignited a fire inside Jemimah, prompting her to carve a coming-of-age knock.
“Great move by Amol Muzumdar because sometimes, as a coach, you need to identify who are these players who just need that little needle, who just need that little poke to ignite that fire, and that’s what he did with Jemi,” Aaron said on Star Sports.
“After that drop, she is really focused, zoned in. I think all that anxiety would have made place for pure aggression, because sometimes when you are playing a World Cup, when you were dropped from the previous World Cup, you just want to prove a point so badly,” he added.
Jemimah didn’t have a dream start to the tournament, notching scores of 0, 32, 0, and 33 before being dropped in the group-stage fixture against England in Indore. The local hero from Mumbai returned to the final XI in the semi-final and enchanted her home crowd with a performance to remember.
After denying Australia the opportunity to defend their crown, India will now square off against South Africa at the same venue in Navi Mumbai on Sunday for the coveted title.
(With ANI Inputs)