Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra slammed all the trolls after India registered a famous five-wicket win against Australia in the Women World Cup semifinal at Navi Mumbai on Thursday. India had entered the contest as an underdog but stunned the Australians as they chased down the gargantuan target of 339 runs.
Jemimah Rodrigues was the star of the show for the home team as she played a match-winning knock of 127 runs off 134 balls to take her side over the line. Rodrigues added 167 runs with Harmanpreet Kaur for the third wicket after India lost early wickets of Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana.
“One falls short of words at times. I have a question for the keyboard warriors. When we lost against England, I had put a tweet that it was heartbreaking, and actually the heart broke that day. That day, below that post, I saw many comments, which included memes and images where they were showing our Indian girls in the kitchen, saying that’s their job,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“You can criticize, but don’t troll. Trolling is not okay. I am okay with you judging someone’s performance, but if you tell someone that they are not worthy of it, I would say they are worthy, you are worthless. I was taken aback. If I read that and felt bad, the Indian team would have also read that,” he added.
Chopra noted that India was under the cosh after they lost both their openers cheaply in a big run chase.
“The opening partnership wasn’t good. Pratika Rawal wasn’t there and Shafali Verma didn’t fire. Smriti Mandhana got out down the leg side, and your heart broke, that it wouldn’t happen. Jemi was sent at No. 3, and then there was a partnership,” he said.
The renowned commentator showered praise on Jemimah Rodrigues for her outstanding knock under pressure.
“When we lost the final in 2017, Jemi had gone to the airport to receive the team. She was dropped from the 2022 World Cup. She started this tournament with a duck. After that, she was dropped as well. She said she was crying throughout this tour. She was anxious. You are fighting yourself every day. Then she scores a century. She was there right till the end,” Chopra observed.
India will take on South Africa in the final on Sunday.
