Kajol and Twinkle welcomed World Cup champions Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues for a special episode of Two Much with Kajol and Twinkle that hits straight out of the park. From childhood hustle to big-match pressure and the pure thrill of winning, they shared stories that were equal parts fun, emotional and inspiring. It’s a vibrant celebration of passion, grit and the unstoppable rise of women’s cricket in India!
Fresh off the victory, Jemimah summed up the feeling of winning the World Cup after 52 years, “It’s a dream, not just for us, but I think every single Indian out there. And we’re so happy we could do it and we’d also spoken about this that this World Cup is not just for us, but it is also for the generation before us who set the foundation so that we could play cricket today. So I think this is everyone’s cup.” Recounting the final wicket, she continued, “Vo jab last wicket gaya, (when we took the last wicket) and we all won, I think we all ran towards Harry Di, who took the last catch. But none of us could believe what happened. It didn’t sink in. It’s like abhi bhi sapna dekh rahe hai ki ye actually ho raha hai. (Are we dreaming or is this actually happening) Because we’ve dreamed about this our entire lives.”
Jemimah revealed the twist that almost led her to hockey instead of cricket, “I played cricket before I played hockey. We had moved from Bhandup to Bandra because there was a lot of travelling. And that was also a very big move, because Bandra, it’s very expensive to stay there, and we came from a middle class family. So, when I came there, one of my uncles gave me a hockey stick and said ‘Go play, my daughter also plays.’ I played and I started doing well in hockey too. And the funny story here is, I got selected to play hockey for the state before cricket for the state. So my friends were like okay, Jemi is going to play hockey for India, that’s what they thought.” Eventually faced with a choice, she revealed why she chose cricket, “At that level, I had reached a higher level in cricket than hockey, so then we went ahead with cricket. But my dream is still to play both for India.”
Shafali recounted the surprising way her cricket journey began, “Mere bhai ko ek tournament mei jaana tha and he got sick. Uske baad fir papa Sir ko phone kar rahe the ki ‘Mera beta nahi aa raha hai’ toh maine bola ‘Papa phone kaato jaldi, phone kaato.’ Toh maine bola, mai bhi toh jaa sakti hu na, achi practice ho jayegi meri. I even had boy-cut hair. Aur mera bhai ke face se similar hai almost. Toh mai khelne gayi, vaha mai ‘Player Of The Series’ aayi thi. Mai uss time pe 11 saal ki thi. Toh vo bhai ka peeche jersey pe Sahil likhke mai khel rahi thi.” (My brother had to go to a tournament and he got sick. After that, Papa was calling Sir and saying, ‘My son is not coming’, then I said, ‘Papa, hang up quickly, hang up.’ Then I said, I can also go, it will be good practice for me. I even had boy-cut hair. And my brother’s face is almost similar. So I went to play, there I got ‘Player of the Series’. I was 11 years old at that time. So I was playing with ‘Sahil’ written on the jersey behind my brother.)
Looking back on her early days playing cricket, Jemimah said, “Initially when I started playing at a club, at that time, girls cricket wasn’t known. So there were no specific nets for girls. So my dad put me in an academy where there were all boys. I think there were 400 boys and I was the only girl there. I remember, we used to have this warm up where you put your hand on each other’s shoulder and you swing your legs to get the mobility going. But no boy would come to me. And then even if there was a guy who would come talk to me, later his friends would tease him with me. So nobody would really come and talk. Mentioning how she was never intimidated by the boys, she added, “When you have a bat in hand, or a ball in hand, you just end up having so much more confidence being yourself. It actually helped us up our game. Because just imagine, ek ladki ek ladka ko boundary ya six, if they are hitting, it hurts the guy’s ego. So next ball they are going to come hard. But they prepared us to be tough growing up I think.”
Talking about her comfort movie, Shafali narrated, “I’m someone, mai jabhi bhi down hoti hu, mai humesha Dangal movie dekhti hu, sach batau toh. Because, I’m from Haryana, aur jitni cheeze uss movie mei hai, almost meri life se thodi bohot match karti hai. Toh jabhi bhi mera down phase hota hai, mai humesha Dangal movie dekhti hu aur apne aap pumped up ho jaati hu.” (Whenever I’m down, I always watch the movie Dangal, to tell you the truth. Because I’m from Haryana, and almost everything in that movie matches my life a little bit. So whenever I’m in a down phase, I always watch the movie Dangal and I automatically get pumped up.)
Jemimah revealed why she’s earned the title of Team DJ and narrated, “Personally, I love slow feel good Bollywood music. When we started playing for the state, I used to only listen to English songs. But she was the one who started playing a lot of Bollywood songs. The team also bonds a lot more to Bollywood music. So now I listen to more Bollywood music. But yeah, it depends. If the DJ thing is like when we are dancing, then it’s Punjabi.”
Conceptualised and produced by Banijay Asia, this one-of-a-kind talk show is presented by Oppo and co-presented by Kohler, Kalyan Jewellers and Fevi Kwik. Catch the special episode of Two Much with Kajol and Twinkle, now streaming, only on Prime Video, in over 240 countries and territories.
