It’s been well over a year since India suffered a massive heartbreak in a close semi-final clash in last year’s Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa. The defeat had shattered the entire team as they fell five runs short of beating Australia in Cape Town. But taking lessons from the past, the Women in Blue are motivated enough to script history when the next edition of the mega ICC takes place in UAE.
India will begin their campaign on October 3 against New Zealand, before locking horns with arch-rivals Pakistan next Sunday. Speaking about the on-field rivalry with Pakistan, star batter Jemimah Rodrigues recalled her match-winning knock against Pakistan in last year’s T20 World Cup.
Jemimah had no great knocks against her name. Hence, it was understandable that Jemimah was nervous the night before the clash against Pakistan, a match-up that brings added pressure on both teams.
“I was not in the best of form and then comes the big game against Pakistan – the entire world watching, especially in India. You know how the India-Pakistan rivalry is – all watchmen in the building come and tell me, ‘World Cup jeete ya na jeete, Pakistan ke against nahi haarna aap logon ko’ (Whether you win World Cup or not, you don’t have to lose against Pakistan),” Jemimah was quoted as saying by IANS.
To ease her nervousness, Jemimah followed her usual routine of going out for a walk. On the way, she stopped, looked upwards and said, ‘Thank you, Jesus, last year at the same time I was dropped from the ODI World Cup, but this time I’m here’.
“I just thanked him for that and it just changed my perspective – of just being grateful for where I was and how the journey wasn’t easy,” she said.
In the shortest format, Jemimah has primarily been a top-order batter, but the upcoming T20 World Cup might see her play at number five. She also feels excelling at number five in T20Is is all about adapting to situations, and conditions and the mindset remains the same.
“I’m just trying to be a little more aggressive and positive because sometimes situations at number five are very different from three, as there it’s more like you build innings, partnerships, run and do everything to set a momentum and tempo.”
“At five, you already know the situation and from there, you have to take whatever comes. So I’ve been working a lot on that, like going all out from the first ball because sometimes in a match, you may need six runs off one ball and I want to be prepared for that at five.”
(With IANS Inputs)
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