Birmingham| India took on Barbados in the last league game of the Commonwealth Cricket Championship. With their dominant display of batting, team India marched ahead in the competition and have now solidified a place for themselves in the semi-final of the tournament. With Pakistan and Barbados being eliminated, it is now India and Australia who will have a shot at the prized gold medal from group A.
Barbados women had won the toss but they decided to field first as they wanted to restrain India on a very small total. They started positively and dismissed Smriti Mandhana very early on in the Indian innings. Mandhana's wicket did not bother India much as young Shafali Verma continued her display of attacking batting. With Shafali batting, on the other hand, it was Jemimah Rodrigues whose technical and elegant batting caught the eyes of many Indian fans and experts all around the globe.
Jemimah has been going through a very patch lately, but the Indian team management will be happy that she is peaking at the right time which will allow India to have better chances to grab the prestigious CWG gold medal. Rodrigues scored a sublime 56 off 46 deliveries at a strike rate of 121.74 and helped India cruise towards a decent total of 162.
"Smriti had told me long back in the IPL [Women's T20 Challenge] in 2019 that you don't have to be a Harmanpreet Kaur or a Smriti Mandhana. You have to be a Jemimah Rodrigues. I think I have understood that role and it's helping me. The team has given me a role. If I can play that role, it doesn't matter how other people look at it. If the dynamics suit our team, we have Shafali, Smriti, Harman, so I just want to play the best role I want to play for the team", said Jemimah
Teams:
Barbados Women Playing XI: Deandra Dottin, Hayley Matthews(c), Kycia Knight(w), Kyshona Knight, Aaliyah Alleyne, Trishan Holder, Alisa Scantlebury, Shakera Selman, Shamilia Connell, Shaunte Carrington, Shanika Bruce
India Women Playing XI: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Taniya Bhatia(w), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Sneh Rana, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh
(Inputs from PTI)
