India batting superstar Jemimah Rodrigues has remembered thinking about a fascinating old conversation with Virat Kohli during her historic century against Australia in the 2025 World Cup semi-final in Navi
Mumbai.
Many had likened that knock, a 127* off 134 balls in the chase of 339 against the defending champions and the best team in the world, to Kohli’s 82* off 53 against Pakistan in Melbourne during the 2022 men’s T20 World Cup. Jemimah said she had asked Kohli about that knock long before the World Cup and he had refused to take credit for it, instead praising God for ‘choosing’ him to take India home.
“I once spoke to Virat Kohli about this,” Rodrigues said in an episode of the YouTube show Breakfast With Champions. “I asked him about that Melbourne knock. I said, ‘You know, this knock is something else… it was a crazy knock. What was going on in your head? How did such a knock even happen?’ What he told me was, ‘You know Jemimah, even if I want to take credit for that knock, I can’t. If you ask me to replicate that knock, I can’t. I was just grateful that God chose me at that moment to be the person to take India through.’”
“And when that World Cup semifinal happened, I just remembered what he said. Because I didn’t change anything in my practice. My preparation was the same. Everything was the same, but it’s just… you know, you are just chosen for that moment. And things just happen. I think that was one moment for me where I can’t take credit.”
Rodrigues said that she had gone into ‘Zen’ mode for that knock, where she unusually didn’t even think about celebrating or anything beyond the next ball till the match was won.
“Until that final run was scored, I had nothing. I was blank. And the moment that ball went for a boundary, Amanjot (Kaur) hit that shot, I hugged her, I picked her up, and I just burst into tears. I hadn’t planned that. I didn’t even think I would cry. But I don’t know, it was just that moment: a World Cup semifinal at home, in front of my home crowd, with my parents there. After everything that happened over the last month, I think all of that was just bottled up and it finally came out,” Rodrigues said.
