The word “home” is more of emotion. It is the line of difference between visiting a place and returning to it. When everything seems to fall apart when your efforts slowly become a past and stay in memory, returning to that place gives back the strength you didn’t know you needed.
Roughly put, it is more of a fantasy story you see or hear about returning to your home, in films, it might be your hometown.
Usually, it begins this way. The protagonist enters the hometown, sees people related to them going through difficulties. They pick a side, drag their people out from the mouth of monster trouble. You pick a side too. You travel with the protagonist, you feel what they feel and go through various emotions just like they do and say goodbye on a happy note. On Saturday, Jemimah Rodrigues went through all these and pulled us all along with her too.
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India and England are two main “homes” for Jemimah Rodrigues. When India took on South Africa, Jemimah couldn’t do much. Ending on the losing side is one thing, scoring a string of single-digit scores is another. Failure after failure, loss after loss. Not sure which was more disheartening.
India then moved to England. Jemimah failed to make it into the team in a few matches, including the famous one-off Test. She would have been frustrated. Hurt. This is not something she is used to.
A few years ago, in the domestic circuit, runs came to her easily. Every time she turned up, she returned with the fifties, tons, and even more. The scores weren’t just one-time to call it a fluke. She had boundaries for breakfast, chose Strokeplay over just swings. She then took the India flight and flew with flying colors there too.
To add more, the KSL call-up came at the right time, and she found her second home. She was just too good that one might think if she was really challenged. That’s right. Look at the scoreboard, you’d never know. But that didn’t repeat in the England tour, years later.
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Everything is just history now. The visits to different places didn’t work for her. It gave her wounds. Her spot in the team was no longer hers. She wanted to return home, finally. She wanted to bury the recent scars.
On Saturday, Jemimah, on her way home, had her own story of trouble. Welsh Fire were taking her partners down, one by one. They put her in the web of regrets when her call dismissed Wolvaardt.
In good old films, the heroes don’t take more than a couple of blows. And you had Jemimah sweeping Matthews for a boundary. All the scars she gathered for months miraculously started to disappear. She was ready to present the world her reformed face.
With time on one axis and runs on the other, she started to give back. The work for the healing began. Turns out, she didn’t have to break her brain to get there. The path was clear. Keep it damn simple.
As she saw her home from a long distance, she began to run towards it. The balls didn’t matter. The bowlers didn’t matter. She killed one by one who came in her way. Matthews had more injuries while Harvey received three consecutive blows.
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In every film, the protagonist’s friend will have a duty, an important one. They would stand by the protagonist until the end, keep them in check. They don’t usually get praise for what they do, and they don’t care about it either.
Alice Davidson-Richards was Jemimah’s friend that day. She made sure to give the strike back, keep the scoreboard ticking. Also, she was the one who ended the fight in the end.
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If Saturday’s performance was any indicator, Jemimah has regained her raw edge to become one of the most dangerous batters in the history of cricket. She is all set to put the past behind and write the sequel for her story.
With that knock, she is back in the forefront and is close to getting back on the line-up. There is no difficult math. All she has to do is keep scoring runs. As simple as that.
There are no doubts when it comes to her talent. She is a natural and with age by her side, it is only fair to give her a second chance.
After all, there is no wonder story than the story of pain and redemption in the game of cricket.
