Jemimah Rodrigues: No blame game in the team

Jemimah Rodrigues

The Indian women's team is disappointed at being knocked-out of the ongoing tri-nation series and takes collective responsibility for the failure, said teenaged all-rounder Jemimah Rodrigues, who vowed the side would bounce back in the next series against Sri Lanka. India today suffered a 36-run defeat at the hands of Australia, their third successive loss, to be out of contention to make the final.

'The best part of our team is that we are together and there is no blame game going on because of these consecutive losses. Each one is taking their responsibility and they are agreeing that it is because of us," Jemimah told reporters at the post match media conference.

"They are sad and I believe in our team and the support staff we have the thrust they are putting in us. We are going to bounce back and we are going to come back in the coming series and specially in the (T20) World Cup,' said the 17-year-old, who added 54 runs with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur today.

Jemimah scored her maiden T20 international fifty - a 41-ball 50 -- to emerge as the top-scorer for India chasing a target of 187.
'I just need to keep on learning, even when we do well, my thing was which areas I can get better, because normally when we do well we forget about everything and get carried away with the victory. When we lose we realize our mistake better and we get an opportunity to learn from it,' she said. Jemimah said she wants to play in the Women's Big Bash League.

'I would like to play (in the WBBL), but I will have to improve a lot on my fitness and batting and I have not spoken to the Australians yet, but if I get an opportunity I would love to play,' she said. Jemimah said T20 cricket needs one to be fearless and more aggressive while One Day gives a batswoman enough time to settle down.

'It is just the change of mindset, the technique and everything is the same, when you go for ODIs or you go for T20s. It is just the change of mindset in T20, where you need to be more aggressive, fearless and you need to take calculated risks," she explained.
"Whereas in One Day where you have much more time to settle down and you can pace your innings, but T20 is more of a bold game,' she added.

Jemimah, who made her T20 debut in South Africa, said her performance in the Rainbow nation would boost her confidence. 'My experience has been really good. Playing in South Africa on their soil and doing well over there, that has boosted me and given me a lot of confidence, I can do much better, it was a learning experience for me," she said.

"I understood how the team goes about, what's the process and how the South Africans play, and like what's their stand.'

Australian skipper Meg Lanning lavished praise on Jemimah, terming her as exciting talent.

'Exciting talent. Comes out and plays without fear, and we know when we're bowling to her we have to get it right or we'll be going the journey. That's exciting for the game, India have a few of those players coming through, which is really good," she said.

"That's just sort of the new nature of the women's game , those sort of players are going to thrive in the next few years. It's an exciting sport, great to see where we end up,' Lanning added.

Meanwhile, Megan Schutt, who took a hat-trick, quipped: 'To be honest, I wasn't even aware that I was on a hat-trick. So I was kind of unaware. So probably it's a good thing.'

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