India, Oct. 31 -- Who would have thought that India, of all teams, would pull off the biggest run chase in the history of ODI women's cricket? That they would do it in a World Cup semi-final. That they would achieve it against Australia - serial tournament winners with an intimidating record.

On the scale of victories and losses, India's tournament run has been chequered. So pin it down to the enormity of what they achieved on Thursday night in Navi Mumbai but Harmanpreet Kaur's team will believe they have got the monkey off their back.

When the fear of failure creeps into an individual, it can seemingly never go away. The South African men's cricket team, for instance, has been branded chokers for decades across teams and generations.I...