Who can forget the Women’s World Cup 2025? The Harmanpreet Kaur-led India ended their ICC title jinx by lifting the title after beating South Africa in the summit clash at the DR DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. More than the final, the tournament will always be remembered for the memorable semi-final between India and Australia, where the hosts pulled off the highest chase in women’s cricket. The feat was all the more memorable, considering the feat was achieved against seven-time champions Australia.
In the semi-final, India chased down the target of 339 with five wickets in hand and nine balls to spare as Jemimah Rodrigues played out of her skin to return with an unbeaten knock of 127 runs off 134 balls. She was involved in a memorable partnership of 167 with skipper Harmanpreet, which saw the latter score 89 runs off 88 balls.
One month after the tournament’s conclusion, Jemimah revealed that she had to uninstall WhatsApp after the semi-final against Australia, as the phone was not just stopping buzzing, and it had become too much to handle for the Mumbai-based batter.
“After the semi-final knock, my phone just kept buzzing and buzzing. I was getting calls from everywhere. I don’t know how random people started getting my number. I had, I’m not even over-exaggerating, but I had 1000 WhatsApp messages. I couldn’t take it because firstly, a lot had happened in that game. A lot of my emotions itself were there. I’m preparing for a final and the tournament is not over. Yes, I played a knock. Yes, we won. Yes, India was in the final. But, we still had a World Cup final to win,” Jemimah told Cricbuzz.
“After a certain point, it just started getting too much for me that I uninstalled WhatsApp. I messaged my close ones, like 4-5 of them, that just either call me or we can chat on a normal message, but I am uninstalling WhatsApp. Because even if I was not reading the message, it was just buzzing. And I just knew that people were messaging me and I just wanted to prepare for the finals. So, till the finals, I didn’t install WhatsApp. I was off social media – maybe put one post-match post, but I was off otherwise until the World Cup final,” she added.
When did Jemimah check social media?
Jemimah, who did not have a good day with the bat in the final, stated that she finally saw the social media once the task was achieved and India won the tournament for the very first time in their history.
“After the World Cup is when I properly saw social media. And my whole social media is only about either the semi-finals or India winning the World Cup. I have never seen such a sight. Even till now, just randomly scrolling Instagram and suddenly my video or something comes up. Or someone is talking about me,” she said.
Speaking of Jemimah, she recently pulled out of the remainder of the Women’s Big Bash League (BBL) for the Brisbane Heat, as she wanted to spend some time with her close friend Smriti Mandhana, who’s wedding was put on hold after her father fell ill.
Jemimah was also retained by the Delhi Capitals for the upcoming Women’s Premier League (WPL), beginning January 9 in Navi Mumbai.
