Through the tears, Jemimah’s absolute class shines through

She's always been the lively supporting act but vs Australia, India discovered the full gamut of her talents

- Rasesh Mandani

In the immediate afterglow of her finest evening in India colours, Jemimah Rodrigues was a bundle of emotions ... lost in happy tears in the middle after defeating mighty Australia.

And she was still crying close to midnight ... letting her deepest feelings of anxiety be known to the wider world as she addressed the media. Whether it is with her dressing room pranks, strumming the guitar in the team bus or throwing herself around on the field while exhibiting her sharp fielding reflexes, the lively Mumbai girl always seems to hold centrestage effortlessly.

But a batting hero, she has rarely been. If there was a motion film on the Indian team, Jemimah would be the character artist, winning awards with critical acclaim. And that's not just how the outside world viewed Jemimah.

Earlier in the tournament, she was the one to make way for an all-rounder. It was a moment that showed how vulnerable her place in the side was. Jemimah had entered the semis on the back of an unbeaten 76 vs New Zealand but she had a quiet start to the campaign, including two no scores.

Having added new layers to her batting in her bid to ace a new role in the middle order, Jemimah was struggling to process being dropped from a key match vs England. For the 25-year-old, this event was her shot at redemption, after missing the 2022 ODI World Cup. At the time, the selectors felt she hadn't done enough to hold her spot in the squad. Now the team management was telling her she wasn't an automatic playing eleven pick anymore.