Published: Dec 01, 2025, 09:19 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 01, 2025, 09:19 PM (IST)
One of the greatest innings in the history of the Women’s World Cup came from Jemimah Rodrigues, who scored an unbeaten 127 against Australia in the semifinal – a knock being compared to Harmanpreet Kaur’s iconic 171* against the same opponents in the 2017 World Cup. Rodrigues did not have the best start to the 2025 World Cup, scoring 0 and 32 against Sri Lanka and Pakistan before recording another duck against South Africa in the group stage. She was subsequently left out of the playing XI against England. However, she bounced back strongly against New Zealand, guiding India to victory with a crucial 76-run innings.
From there, Rodrigues continued to rise in confidence and produced a gritty, match-defining knock against Australia in the semifinal, helping India reach the final – and eventually lift their first-ever Women’s World Cup trophy.
“After the semi-final knock, my phone just kept buzzing and buzzing. I was getting calls from everywhere. I don’t know how random people started getting my number. I had, I’m not even over-exaggerating, but I had 1000 WhatsApp messages. I couldn’t take it because firstly, a lot had happened in that game. A lot of my emotions itself were there. I’m preparing for a final and the tournament is not over. Yes, I played a knock. Yes, we won. Yes, India was in the final. But, we still had a World Cup final to win,†Jemimah said in an interview with Cricbuzz.
“After a certain point, it just started getting too much for me that I uninstalled WhatsApp. I messaged my close ones, like 4-5 of them, that just either call me or we can chat on a normal message, but I am uninstalling WhatsApp. Because even if I was not reading the message, it was just buzzing. And I just knew that people were messaging me and I just wanted to prepare for the finals. So, till the finals, I didn’t install WhatsApp. I was off social media – maybe put one post-match post, but I was off otherwise until the World Cup final,†she added.
She said she had never witnessed such celebrations, and that she only installed WhatsApp and went online after India won the World Cup.
“After the World Cup is when I properly saw social media. And my whole social media is only about either the semi-finals or India winning the World Cup. I have never seen such a sight. Even till now, just randomly scrolling Instagram and suddenly my video or something comes up. Or someone is talking about me,†she said in the same interview.
In earlier, Brisbane Heat have confirmed that star India cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues will not return for the remainder of the WBBL season, granting her request to stay in India following the postponement of teammate Smriti Mandhana’s wedding.
