File photo of Sachin Tendulkar
India batter Jemimah Rodrigues says a call from the legendary Sachin Tendulkar helped her regain focus after being left overwhelmed by the knock of a lifetime that she played in the women’s ODI World Cup semifinal against Australia last year. Rodrigues stood tall with a superlative 127 not out to help India topple the world-dominating Australia en route to their maiden title win last year in Navi Mumbai. She said it was Tendulkar’s inputs that helped her keep the focus.
“Sachin sir called my coach Prashant Shetty. He asked him to tell me that he understood the past couple of days had been a lot for me, the big knock against Australia in the semifinal, the joy of beating them,” Rodrigues told JioHotstar.
“But he reminded me that the job was not over yet. We still had a final to win. He said, ‘try to put that aside and start from zero’. That message really helped me reset my mind.
“I understood that what you did before does not win you the next game. You must treat every match as a new start. That advice from a legend gave me so much clarity before the final,” she added.
In the final against South Africa, it was an all-round show from Shafali Verma (87 and 2/36) which made the difference. The opening batter said her father’s pep-talk came in handy at that time.
“We had two off days before the final. My dad sent me a voice note. He said, ‘Just work hard. Give your best on the field and it has to be in writing that Shafali Verma helped India win the World Cup’,” Shafali said.
“That voice note gave me (some) extra fire. I knew I had to perform not just for myself, but for him and for the team. It pushed me to give everything I had on the field,” she added.
The reigning ODI world champions are gearing up for their tournament-opener in the T20 World Cup against arch rivals Pakistan at Birmingham on Sunday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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