Jemimah Rodrigues
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2018
A noteworthy debut
Anil Dias, Jemimah showed on debut that she belongs, November 11, 2018: The Times of India
When an 18-year-old scores a 45-ball 59 in her first ICC Women’s World T20 match, it calls for celebration. More so, when she becomes the youngest to get a fifty in the tournament. For Mumbai teen sensation Jemimah Rodrigues though, it seemed routine.
Playing against New Zealand in the tournament opener in Providence, Guyana, Jemimah set up India’s innings wonderfully, enabling skipper Harmanpreet Kaur to become the first Indian woman to score a T20I hundred. The duo stitched together a record 134-run partnership for the fourth wicket after India were in a spot of bother at 40-3 in 5.4 overs.
While Harmanpreet walked away with the accolades, young Jemimah’s role should not be forgotten. She played with a maturity beyond her years, choosing to go after the bowling initially, and was then content with rotating the strike once the captain decided to switch gears.
It was such maturity that her dad Ivan — who has coached her since she was a toddler — is immensely proud of. She has indeed come a long way from picking up the bat the age of 3, making the extremely difficult decision of choosing cricket over hockey at the age of 12 (she was selected for the Maharashtra U-17 and U-19 hockey teams) to becoming one of the key members of the senior national team at 17.
T20 cricket is all about aggressive strokeplay. For the diminutive Jemimah, clearing the ropes is quite a challenge. She may have grown up playing with her two older brothers in their home in Bhandup — before they moved to Bandra when she was in Standard 3 — but brashness and power-hitting don’t seem to be her forte. “It’s something (power-hitting) we’ve been working on for quite some time, especially in the past year,” Ivan told TOI.
For a week in October when she was home, Ivan decided to concentrate on that aspect of her batting. While she would train at the Mumbai Cricket Association academy in the morning with the senior women cricketers, Ivan would take her to the MIG Cricket Club in Bandra later in the evening to train with boys.
“At the MIG, she would train at the centre wicket which helped her judge the ball well, making her more confident of going for the big shots. Initially, when she batted against boys’ bowling pace, she took some time to settle in before completely middling the ball. Now she’s more confident,” said Ivan.