Has Jemimah Rodrigues altogether changed the narrative of women’s cricket in India, in particular its fortunes in the ongoing ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup? These are the critical questions that will be answered in the final match of the tournament on Sunday night.

India’s form in the World Cup has been like a curate’s egg, a roller-coaster ride, starting with two wins, then three defeats and returning to winning ways. At the end of it all, the Indian team - popularly known as the women in blue - will lock horns with South Africa, a team that has metamorphosed into a world-beating team after being shot out for a nondescript score in its opening match of the tournament against England. Both teams will go for broke, as they say, for their first big prize in the women’s world of cricket.

As far as the Indian team is concerned, it’s another opportunity for it to have a tilt at the title that eluded it in the final of the 2017 against England at Derby. Thanks to an all-encompassing show of grit and chutzpah by Rodrigues against Australia in the semi-final --- a far cry from the Sandra from Bandra typecast one has heard of – India stormed into the title match in the presence of around 35000 spectators at the lovely looking D.Y. Patil Stadium in the outskirts of Mumbai.

Until the Rodrigues’s game-changing show in the semi-final, the narrative was around the magnificent opening pair in Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal; they had raised the bar in the last ten months, amassing 1799 runs in 23 matches, including 497 in six matches of the World Cup.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was beset by fickleness and Rodrigues was gripped by anxiety. The 25-year-old Rodrigues did not open her account against Sri Lanka and South Africa; sent back indoors, facing a ball each. She made 32 against Pakistan and 33 against Australia. The team management chose to drop her from the match against England, a decision that has to be described as absurd.

Waylaid by South Africa, Australia and England in the preliminary league phase, India was up against a New Zealand side, keen and eager to get a full game of cricket and push itself for a place in the knock-out, after being robbed of points in rain-affected matches in Colombo.

But as it transpired, Mandhana and Rawal put on 212 for the first wicket against New Zealand and set the stage for an entry into the semi-finals even before its last league match against Bangladesh.

India scored a good and morale-boosting win against New Zealand and halted the losing streak, but it was also in this match that Rodrigues, recalled after a one-match break, appeared at the scene of action at the fall of Mandhana and showed her class and calibre with a 55-ball unbeaten 76 with a strike rate of 138.18.

The semi-final berth was secured, and India was all set for another mighty clash with Australia, the seven-time winner of the World Cup and unbeaten in the league. There was to be a twist in the tale though with Rawal being ejected out of the semi-final after she damaged her knee and ankle during a fielding attempt against New Zealand.

It was at her expense that Shafali Verma came to fill the void. Shafali had missed 27 matches since December last with the selection committee going in for Rawal in the home series against the West Indies.

Shafali dispatched two balls to the fence before being trapped leg before and from here on Rodrigues went on to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for the benefit of her team. She had played ten matches against Australia and has not experienced a win against the team attired and gold and green. The Mumbai right-hander had been successful in scoring runs against Australia, but not of the game-changing type.

Rodrigues was misty-eyed and emotional at the post-match press conference narrating her terrible journey in the last year and about getting out for two ducks and being dropped. The fact of the matter though, at the end of it all in that highly-charged match against Australia, while chasing 338, was that Rodrigues took strike in the tenth ball of the match and did not leave the scene of action until her team had eliminated Australia from the final, an outcome that has to be described as shattering to the champion team.

While Rodrigues’s score showed an unbeaten 127 off 134 balls, defying odds and pressure for over three hours, an important trivia that was not highlighted was the 56 dot balls against her in the score sheet. But it was the first time she experienced winning a match against Australia. Figuratively, she grew taller with a performance that mirrored single-mindedness and the will to rise to the occasion. She may have been reprieved three times; Australia saw two catches go abegging, but that’s the way the cookie crumbled for it.

The little over three hours Rodrigues spent in the middle would have taught her ways to construct a big score. It was only the second time she had faced over 100 balls; the first one was facing 101 balls while making 123 against South Africa at the Premadasa Stadium in May this year. Rodrigues has another century, a 102 against Ireland but off 91 balls. She has faced 50 to 100 deliveries on eleven occasions. She will look forward to doing so in the final and play another big part.

India skipper Kaur too pulled her weight and so did Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh and Amanjot Kaur after Kaur’s departure. The team showed they can do thee; win a match against all odds.

Rodrigues would look at the future with a fresh perspective – for herself and the team. She would know how to turn the tide and steer her team to safe waters and win many matches. After two decades of coming under the BCCI administration, the Indian team is at the door step of a massive achievement – a World Cup triumph. The team, probably, threw it away to South Africa in the league match. The time has arrived for it to change the script in the final.

For Rodrigues life has been brutal in the last month; two ducks and dropped from the team and despair; and then knocks of 76 and 127 not out and everything has changed upside down and time to relish and rejoice. Sunday night could turn out to be the biggest story of Indian women’s cricket. The women in blue team and Rodrigues know it.