Women's World Cup 2025: "If one doesn't click the other will step up" - Jemimah Rodrigues banks on batting depth ahead of South Africa clash

India's famed top-order has faltered so far in the first two games in the 2025 Women's World Cup. The incredibly successful opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal has only registered 14 and 48 against less-fancied teams like Sri Lanka and Pakistan, respectively. The likes of Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues have not hit the ground running. However, the middle and lower order batters have bailed the Women in Blue out of trouble in both games.

Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, and Amanjot Kaur have made important contributions for India in the tournament so far. Against Sri Lanka, India slumped to 124/6 before finishing on 269/8. In the game against Pakistan, the co-hosts were struggling at 159/5 before managing 247.

Relying heavily on the lower-order batters to resurrect India yet again on Thursday, October 9, in the clash against a strong team like South Africa at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam could be dangerous. The experienced Jemimah feels that India's batting depth is a great area of strength, but she admitted that the top-order batters will have to step up sooner rather than later.

"I think if you have seen all the matches till now, our opening partnership has been the highest. Pratika and Smriti so far in women's cricket, have crossed 1000 runs as a pair. So, if you talk to me, the opponent team will know that we have batting till the end. So, maybe one doesn't click the other will be taking the responsibility, like Amanjot (Kaur) took that time, Deepti (Sharma) took, and in the last match we had Richa (Ghosh)," Jemimah explained.

"In the first match, the ball was too good and I could not do much. In the second match, I had a good partnership, so, I didn't see my own score, the team's score was more important. That wicket (Colombo) was challenging, so we took our time and gave a foundation to the rest of the team, so we could reach 250. "So, I am not thinking much about myself, my only approach is that I want to do whatever it takes for the team and if I do that and my mindset is right. I know performance will follow, but I want to make sure I do my job for the team first," she said.

We will try and break that opening stand that's been so successful for them: Nadine de Klerk

South African all-rounder Nadine de Klerk said that her team will try its best to dismiss Smriti Mandhana cheaply on Thursday. While the southpaw has only managed just 31 runs from her first two innings in the campaign, de Klerk is well aware of her batting prowess and brilliant record against South Africa.

"Yeah, she's a quality player. She's done well against us in the past. But I think with conditions being a bit on the slower side, we're going to really back ourselves to either keep her quiet or try to put her under pressure and get her early," said Klerk on the eve of the match.

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De Klerk understands that accounting for early wickets — particularly breaking India’s opening partnership — will be crucial to South Africa’s plans.

"We will try and break that opening stand that's been so successful for them over the last couple of months and really try and get that middle-order in as early as possible. We all know if you haven't quite spent as much time in the middle, it's quite difficult in tricky conditions to walk in and put up massive scores. So yeah, hopefully everything goes according to plan," she said.