Indian captain, Harmanpreet Kaur showered praise on Jemimah Rodrigues as she returned to form in their opening match of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 against Sri Lanka on Saturday. The star batter returned to form on her comeback from an injury that had kept her out of competitive action for a couple of months.
The 22-year-old played scored a brilliant 53-ball 76 which is also her highest T20I score. Courtesy of her stupendous knock, India sealed a 41-run win over Sri Lanka and began their Asia Cup 2022 campaign in style. India got off to a shaky start losing their in-form openers Smriti Mandhana (6) and Shafali Verma (10) in the powerplay.
After losing the openers, Jemimah along with captain Harmanpreet Kaur stitched a 92-run stand for the 3rd wicket that propelled India towards a more-than-competitive total. India could only manage 35 runs in the last 4 overs but Harmanpreet and Jemimah’s partnership did the job for them.
Jemimah hit 11 boundaries and a six for her 76 as she showed the same fluency that she had before her injury break. The young batter was ruled out of India’s limited-overs series in England due to a hand injury she had picked up after the Commonwealth Games campaign.
“After losing two wickets when I went to bat, Jemi played well and we strung a good partnership. She worked well in the NCA and were happy to see her play well. I do feel we were short by 10-20 runs. If Jemi and I continued, we could have closed in on 200. But this is a learning process,” captain Harmanpreet Kaur said.
Jemimah has been in sublime form for India in limited-overs cricket ever since her return after missing out on the World Cup snub. The youngster said she was keen on regaining full fitness after picking up the hand injury and that she had worked hard at the National Cricket Academy over the last few weeks.
“I was eager to play, after not touching the bat for six weeks. But my parents, coaches and the staff helped me to recover, so thanks to them. I would like to thank Mumbai where it’s hot, so I got acclimatised to it. I had plans and had prepared well to play on slow, turning tracks which helped to express myself today,” Jemimah said.
India will next take on Malaysia in their next group stage match on Monday before taking on the UAE on Tuesday.
