India National Women's Cricket Team: Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Radha Yadav were felicitated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday after their key roles in India’s recent ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup triumph. The ceremony took place in Mumbai after the players returned from Delhi. Each player received a shawl, a bouquet and a cheque of Rs 2.25 crore from the state government. Jemimah Rodrigues attended the event with her parents.
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Fadnavis praised Mandhana for her commanding batting performances, Rodrigues for her consistency in the middle order, and Yadav for her crucial breakthroughs with the ball. He said their contributions were instrumental in India’s winning campaign.
After meeting Fadnavis, Rodrigues said the win would boost women’s cricket in India. "A lot of gratitude to the Maharashtra State Govt, especially CM. Thank you. When you work hard and when you get rewarded for it, it feels special...I think it was our collective dream. When Sachin Tendulkar and Team India won the World Cup, his house and mine were next to each other. I saw him from my balcony and there was a huge crowd in Bandra. His car could not even move. I was 11 years old...That time it was a dream that I wanted to win the World Cup. I can't believe that now this dream is becoming a reality," Jemimah said as quoted by ANI.
"I think this win for us is going to do massive things for India. It was just the boost we needed. The pay parity coming in by BCCI, the WPL coming in - already the Women's Cricket had picked up. But now it is going to go to a whole new level...I can't wait to see what is going to happen. In India, Cricket is a religion. But what I am excited to see is fathers coming with their daughters and saying that they want their daughters to play Cricket or any dream they want to follow," she added.
Mandhana finished the World Cup as India’s second-highest run-scorer with 434 runs at an average of 54.25. Rodrigues played one of the defining knocks of the tournament with an unbeaten 127 against Australia in the semi-final. The innings is now the highest individual score by an Indian in a Women’s ODI run chase, surpassing Mandhana’s 125 struck last month in Delhi. Rodrigues also became only the second player in Women’s World Cup history to score a century in a knockout run chase and the first to do so in a winning cause.
India lifted its first ICC Women’s ODI World Cup title after beating South Africa by 52 runs in the final at Navi Mumbai. Shafali Verma was named Player of the Match in the final and Deepti Sharma was declared Player of the Tournament.