Jemimah elated after finally getting her maiden ODI century saying she is glad to end long wait for the milestone.
Jemimah elated to have ended her seven-year wait for a maiden international hundred.
She also mentioned that the way she “shifted gears” and her “patience” enabled her to reach the milestone. She helped India reach their highest-ever ODI total of 370 with her game-winning 102 against Ireland in the second ODI in Rajkot.
“Feels great, it was a long-awaited one, and glad I could do it for the team today,” Rodrigues said. “I just tried to keep small targets and just kept achieving it. And I like the way that I shifted gears today. Initially I showed a lot of patience, which was again a big positive for me because it was important for me to spend time there to get those runs. And you know, I was getting the runs. But I was not spending enough time to make it bigger. So I was happy I could do that today.”
According to Rodrigues, she was motivated to aim for three digits by her time as an Under-19 player. She gained notoriety in 2017 for her undefeated 202 against Saurashtra in the U-19 Women’s One Day competition while playing for Mumbai. After losing for nine in the first ODI, Rodrigues described how she managed to stay positive.
“I got angry with myself [the way I got out in the first ODI],” she said. “I needed to be positive towards myself because that works for me. If I keep being too harsh on myself, I go very low. But it was important for me to keep being positive rather than thinking, ‘okay, I got out but next match what could I do better’. I tried to get back to Under-19 where I’ve scored a lot of 100s, I’ve scored a 200 too. I tried to get back to what I used to do then and today I try to apply it, and it came off well.”
Since she was promoted to play at No. 4, it was “an added responsibility” for her to contribute during the absence of regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur. She changed tactics in the final ten overs, requiring just 28 balls to reach her tonne, but Rodrigues took her time getting settled in, reaching her half-century off 62 deliveries. She and Harleen Deol, who scored an 89, also put up a 183-run partnership along the road. Pratika Rawal and Smriti Mandhana, the openers, had combined for 156 runs before to their combination.
“If your openers give you that kind of a start, you know it’s always much more easier for us to handle the middle overs and take it well,” Rodrigues said. “[There were] two back-to-back wickets, so Harleen and I had to just give ourselves some time because I think Ireland bowlers are also on top at that time. So I think one thing about 50-over matches, you know we can take a little bit of time and that’s what we did. We calculated well. We settled the 40s, just play risk-free cricket and we know we can always make up for it.”
She had been waiting “for the last seven years” to celebrate her milestone, and Rodrigues used her bat to imitate playing a tune on her guitar. She hoped it would be the first of many hundreds, but she was glad she could finally do that. Her next objective is to assist India in reaching the 400-run milestone.
“It feels good. But there are lot of places we can still improve as a team because we always look to keep improving. We’ve spoken that when we do well try and be a little more critical about how we can get better than that. So yeah, next game hopefully 400.”