2025 has been a year of firsts across sports, across continents. Teams and athletes have broken long-standing barriers, rewriting history with their maiden titles. And on Thursday (October 30), in Navi
Mumbai, the Indian women’s cricket team joined that list of dreamers-turned-believers by toppling the invincible Australians.
India’s five-wicket win over Australia in the second semifinal of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 wasn’t just about reaching the final against South Africa. It was about ensuring that, this time, the world would see a new champion.
Australia arrived at the DY Patil Stadium on the back of 15 consecutive World Cup wins. When Alyssa Healy chose to bat first and her side piled up 338, it looked like business as usual. After all, in women’s cricket, no team had ever chased down 339. The highest successful chase – 331 – was achieved by Australia themselves earlier this month, against India.
So, when India began their reply and lost Shafali Verma in the second over and Smriti Mandhana, the world No. 1 ODI batter, in the tenth, the inevitable seemed to be unfolding again.
Enter Jemimah Rodrigues.
The 25-year-old Mumbaikar walked in at No. 3 – a position of pressure and responsibility. At the other end was her captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, whose 171* in Derby back in 2017 had changed the course of women’s cricket in India. Together, the duo added 167 runs off 156 balls, scripting a chase that would rewrite the limits of belief.
Harman played another gem – 89 off 88 balls – but the night belonged to Jemima
She’s one of the most visible faces of Indian cricket today – the one who plays guitar, cracks jokes, makes Instagram reels, and lives her life with unapologetic joy. But with that visibility came noise, criticism, trolls, and endless advice. Jemimah never hit back. She chose silence, and on Thursday night, she let her bat do the talking.
Her 127* off 134 balls, studded with 14 fours, wasn’t just a match-winning knock – it was arguably the greatest knock in the history of women’s cricket.
From setbacks to glory
But before this moment of glory, there had been heartbreak. She was dropped from India’s ODI World Cup squad in 2022 – a setback that hurt deeply. And even in this very tournament, she found herself benched against England. The scars were fresh, the doubts real.
“I was dropped from the team. That really hit me. When you are dropped, you have a lot of doubts. Because I always want to contribute to the team. But that day (vs England), I couldn’t do much sitting out. And then when you come back in, it’s a lot more pressure than everything that was happening in the past month. But sometimes all you need to do is just hang in there and things fall into place,” she said at the post-match press conference, holding back tears.
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Rodrigues spoke about battling anxiety, about learning to stay present, about maturity. And she revealed why she didn’t raise her bat even after scoring that century.
“I didn’t play for my 100. I didn’t play to prove a point at number 3. I didn’t play for my 50. I just played to make sure India win. At that board, I wanted to see India win at the end. And that was my only motivation.”
“I knew how important this match was, and I wanted to be there to finish it off. So, all I did was just keep telling myself to just stand here. Just stand here; amazing things can happen. You never know what can happen towards the end of the match. And then whenever thoughts were coming, like, when I reached my 50, when I reached my 100, I didn’t celebrate because at that moment I thought of it, and I thought, I looked at the hotel right here, and I said, ‘Tomorrow morning, what would make me happier?’ Would it be a 50? Would it be 100? No, it would be India winning. And I want to wake up with that; I want to sleep with that smile that we are playing the finals, and I’m making up to get ready for the finals. So, I think that kept me motivated.”
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After her knock, comparisons with Gautam Gambhir’s 2011 World Cup final innings came thick and fast, but in reality, Jemimah’s innings can’t be compared with anyone’s for various reasons. And it was not just about the runs she scored. Whoever has followed women’s cricket can only understand the impact of her performance in the game of cricket and how things will change post October 30, 2025. On October 30, 2025, at the DY Patil Stadium, Jemimah Rodrigues didn’t just win a semifinal. She changed the way women’s cricket will be remembered in India.
