About a year ago, 16-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues took the most important call of her life as she had to choose between cricket and hocket and she made up her mind for cricket despite the fact that she was picked in both the under-17 and under-19 Maharashtra hockey teams. She also didn’t have the time to juggle both sports.
However, on Sunday her decision of choosing cricket got some justification as she became only the second woman after Smriti Mandhana to score a double-century in 50-over cricket. Jemimah scored 202 in just 163 balls at Aurangabad against Saurashtra. Her record-breaking innings came just a few days after she’d scored 178 off 142 balls against Gujarat in the under-19 tournament.
Jemimah has been going through a rapid growth in her career as she was picked when only 13 for the under-19 state team. Within a couple of years, she’s found herself being picked for the under-23 and then the senior Mumbai team as well.
During the chat with Indian Express after the record knock, Rodrigues said, “When it was time to choose I went with cricket but I really enjoyed playing hockey too. But since last one year, I hardly got any time. I either have under-19 matches or under-23 or zonal matches for the senior team. I still love hockey though.”
Jemimah feels that cricket does come naturally to her as her father Ivan was a club cricketer and has been a junior coach for a few years. He is in charge of the St Joseph School, where his daughter did her schooling. Talking about her practice, Rodrigues said,
“I have really worked hard during the offseasonn. Practicing, training twice a day. I used to go to the gym at 8 am, then directly to MCA-BKC ground for practice and then go home and practice. By the time I reach home it used to be 8 pm. All the hard-work has paid off today.”
In 2016, Jemimah was the highest run-getter across the country at the under-19 level with 376 runs. She averaged 376 with one century and three fifties in six games. Her consistent performances have continued this year as well. She scored 222 runs in inter-zonal matches for West Zone where she was captain and the highest scorer in 2017. Later she won best batsman award in the senior women’s one day league held in Guntur as well.
Despite her life being surrounded by sports, her father never compromised on Jemimah’s academics. And Ivan has taken special permission from the Mumbai Cricket Association to help her with her studies for two hours when she’s part of a camp. Explaining the same, her father, Ivan said, “In her 10th she got 80%. Whenever the camp used to happen in Mumbai or a nearby area, we used to teach her in the evenings. Luckily, I saw her innings today and I just thanked god.”
