Jemimah Rodrigues and the art of simply hanging in there

And so on Thursday in Navi Mumbai, she hung in there. From the second over of India’s daunting run-chase, till the final runs were hit in the 49th over. The tears that were shed on the field, as she sank to her knees unbeaten on 127 and unbroken after 193 minutes, will rightly take up a lot of column space and airwaves. But later, she spoke about the tears that were shed behind the scenes. About leaning on teammates Arundhati Reddy and Radha Yadav’s shoulders. About just having Smriti Mandhana stand with her at the nets without saying much, but meaning a lot. And about letting it all out with her mother over the phone. It’s often the hours that are spent away from the spotlight that shape a professional athlete’s career.

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So when the opportunity presented itself early on at a venue that she knows well, she willed herself on to dig in. She’d say later that, from the moment she found out she was batting at No 3 to walking out in the middle, the message to herself was: “Just stand, just stand here, just stand here… and amazing things can happen.”

Her resurgence in international cricket over the past few years has also been built on having routines when she has the bat in hand. She explained in Vizag during a media interaction how she gets ready for a delivery, moving her gloves over the vertically held bat handle in a specific pattern, to set herself up. “If my grip moves a little here, my head starts falling, and then my leg goes across, and all these things happen to me… so to nullify that. I just started with this routine. Okay, centre of the palm… across the centre of the bat, and that’s what I do every ball as a habit.” She did that for 134 deliveries till the job was done.

Between all this, luck smiled on her, too. She prayed a lot, of course. It helps her stay grounded. And it gave her the energy when the body was starting to tire and the mind started to wander after the second drinks break. Then came Harmanpreet Kaur’s dismissal. In the past, many a run-chase has derailed for India in big matches when Harmanpreet was dismissed. Rodrigues has been there too. So those memories had to be banished. “Harry di’s dismissal came as a blessing in disguise for me, as at that point I was kind of losing my focus because of my tiredness. But when Harry di got out, I think that added more responsibility to me. Okay, I need to be here, and I’ll score for her. I think that again got me in the right zone. Then I started just sensibly playing.”

In his commencement address at Dartmouth in 2024, Roger Federer hoped to debunk a myth around his glorious career. That he made tennis look effortless. He said it bothered him that people didn’t see the hours he put in to get his game to where it was. Then he went on to add: “There are days when you just feel broken. Your back hurts… your knee hurts… Maybe you’re a little sick… or scared… But you still find a way to win. And those are the victories we can be most proud of. Because they prove that you can win not just when you are at your best, but especially when you aren’t. Yes, talent matters. I’m not going to stand here and tell you it doesn’t. But talent has a broad definition. Most of the time, it’s not about having a gift. It’s about having grit. In tennis… like in life… discipline is also a talent. And so is patience.”

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These are things easier said than done of course. And Rodrigues knows that too. She felt it when she was dropped for the 2022 World Cup. She felt it over the last month, after getting out cheaply in the first few months, and most of all, felt it deeply when she had to watch from the sidelines as India fumbled a run-chase against England. Jemimah said it was faith that helps her hang in there. Perhaps, there is a lesson in it – hang in there long enough… wait for your moment… one night – perhaps with the world watching on – you’d seize it. Like Jemimah Rodrigues.

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