India batter Jemimah Rodrigues has spilled beans on the emotional challenges she faced ahead of her match-winning knock in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 semi-final against Australia at DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday (October 30).

The 25-year-old revealed that she endured anxiety during the early phase of the tournament and often called her mother in tears to deal with the pressure.

It was a wonderful return to form for Jemimah, who was left out of the playing XI earlier in the competition before finding her best with excellent unbeaten knocks against New Zealand and then Australia.

The Women in Blue were set dauting 339-run target by the defending champions in the semi-final. But thanks to Jemimah’s maiden World Cup century (127* off 134 balls), the hosts chased down the target with five wickets in hand and nine deliveries remaining.

"I'll be very vulnerable here because I know if someone is watching this - might be going through the same thing and that's my whole purpose of saying it because nobody likes to talk about their weakness," Jemimah said in the post-match presser.

"I was going through a lot of anxiety at the start of the tournament and it was a lot before few games also I used to call my mum and cry, cry the entire time, let it all out, because when you're going through anxiety, you just feel numb. You don't know what to do. You're trying to be yourself. And also in this time, my mum and my dad, they supported me a lot.

"And also, there was Arundhati (Reddy) who I think almost every day I've cried in front - almost every day I've cried in front of her. Later, I was joking, I said, you don't come in front of me, I'll start crying. But she checked on me every single day. And there was Smriti (Mandhana), who helped me. She also knew what I was going through. A few of the net sessions, she was just standing there. Even yesterday she came. She just stood there just because - didn't say much, but she just knows that her presence is important for me.

"There's been Radha (Yadav) who's always been there taking care of me. I'm so blessed to have friends I can call family, that I didn't have to go through it alone and it's OK to ask for help. And that's what happened. And my mum also, she's as emotional as I am, but she went through a lot. My family went through a lot. But everyone stood by me and believed in me when I didn't, when I couldn't," she added.

Jemimah’s World Cup 2025 campaign got off to a terrible start as she returned with scores of 0, 32, 0, and 33 before being dropped for the clash against England in Indore.

The right-hander acknowledged that the setback made her question her abilities and whether she was truly good enough to succeed at the highest level.

"It started with the anxiety thing. Then I was dropped from the team and that really hit me," Jemimah continued. "When you're dropped, you have a lot of doubts because I always want to contribute to the team. But that day I couldn't do much sitting out. And then when you come back in, it's a lot more pressure with everything that was happening in the past month."

"But sometimes all you need to do is just hang in there and things fall into place. So I'm very grateful for the people who believed in me when I couldn't and were there for me and understood me because I couldn't do this on my own," she added.

India will now take on first-time finalists South Africa in the title clash on Sunday (November 2) at DY Patil Stadium.

(With IANS Inputs)