Jemimah Rodrigues opens about her personal struggles: ‘I used to call my mom and cry, cry the entire time…’

“I was going through a lot of anxiety at the starting of the tournament and it was a lot before few games also I used to call my mom and cry, cry the entire time, let it all out, because when you’re going through anxiety, you just feel numb. You don’t know what to do. You’re trying to be yourself. And also in this time, my mom, my dad, they supported me a lot.”

“And also, there was Arundhati who I think almost every day I’ve cried in front – almost every day I’ve cried in front of her. Later, I was joking, I said, you don’t come in front of me, I’ll start crying. But she checked on me every single day.”

“And yeah, and there was Smriti who helped me. She also knew what I was going through. Few of the net sessions, she was just standing there. Even yesterday she came. She just stood there just because – didn’t say much, but she just knows that her presence is important for me. There’s been Radha who’s always been there taking care of me.”

“Like, I’m so blessed to have friends I can call family, that I didn’t have to go through it alone and it’s okay to ask for help. And that’s what happened. And my mom also, she’s as emotional as I am, but she went through a lot. My family went through a lot. But everyone stood by me and believed in me when I didn’t, when I couldn’t. And the other thing, then what happened? It started with the anxiety thing. Then I was dropped from the team.”

“That really hit me. And, when you’re dropped, you have a lot of doubts because I always want to contribute to the team. But that day I couldn’t do much sitting out. And then when you come back in, it’s a lot more pressure with everything that was happening in the past month. But sometimes all you need to do is just hang in there and things fall into place,” an extremely emotional Rodrigues said in the post-match press conference.

Rodrigues also spoke about her mindset going into bat with the scoreboard reading 13/1, saying that she constantly urged herself to stay in the middle and have faith that something special could be achieved if she could put all her energies into winning the semifinal for India.

“I think once I walked in there, I just thought of how would I play for a Mumbai team when I lead Mumbai, how would I do it there? Because I knew I needed to be there. Build a partnership with Smriti or Harman or whoever comes in from there, what would I do?”

“And I know how important this match is and I wanted to be there to finish it off. So, all I did was just kept telling myself – just stand, just stand here, just stand here, amazing things can happen towards you and you just give God a chance. Just stand here.”

“You never know what can happen towards the end of the match. And then whenever thoughts were coming, like, when I reached my 50, when I reached my 100, I didn’t celebrate because at that moment I thought of it and I thought I looked at a hotel right here 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. So, I think that kept me motivated, too,” the right-handed batter said.

‘Australia were 30 runs short’

At 193/2 in 30 overs, Australia had built a solid foundation to bat India out of the contest. But the bowlers, led by Sree Charani, got the hosts back into the match to restrict the visitors to 338 all out. Rodrigues admitted that Australia were 30 runs short on that surface and revealed that India took experience from having made 341 against New Zealand and 330 against Australia in their league phase matches, during the semifinal.

“I think when we saw this score – the teams thoughts was that – against New Zealand in 49 overs we had scored 341, against Australia in Vizag where we had scored 333. So, we knew that we’ve done it against this team, and I felt with the way Australia started, they were 30 runs short – with the way they were going, with the start they got.”

“So, I knew they were 30 run short and DY Patil is such a pitch, any score is chaseable. So, I just knew that all I – 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,” she said.