Navi Mumbai, Nov. 2 -- 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 here 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. India's women cricketers have had their own share of troubled past with run chases - the 2017 ODI World Cup final, the 2022 Commonwealth Games final, the 2023 T20 World Cup semi-final. Why go that far back? Just 10 days ago, Harmanpreet's team crumbled under pressure against England at Indore, leaving their Cup aspirations on the edge. Having chased down 339 with 5 wickets and 9 balls in hand, they would hope they have now arrested the spread of the disease for good. India could achieve the seemingly impossible chase for in their mind they reduced all the pressure talk to psychobabble that would not affect them. Their leading batter Smriti Mandhana was out in the 10th over. But Jemimah Rodrigues was telling herself that Australia had finished 30 runs short after the way they started; that the DY Patil stadium pitch was good; that any score was chaseable. She just had to be there to get those runs. Like against England, chasing 289, where India lost a set batter in Mandhana in the 42nd over, here too they lost the set Kaur, this time in the 36th over. That's the time Rodrigues was tiring, playing shots she should not. "When Harry di (Kaur) got out, it was a blessing in disguise for me. I was losing concentration," she recalled after the match. "It was a tricky phase whether I should go right now or take it deep. It's a learning for me, to just stay there." Run chases are all about numbers. Risk reward management with the quantum of resources in hand. India fluffed their lines against England. They weren't going to repeat their mistakes this time. "You should have finished the match," Kaur recalled head coach Amol Muzumdar's stern dressing room talk. "He was aggressive in a good way. And everyone took it in the right spirit." Against England, India needed 42 runs off 36 balls. But they left it too late for it to swell to 23 off 12. The equation was stiffer against Australia - 48 runs off 36 balls. Here, they were able to scale it down to 8 off 12. As it turned out, the final over wasn't even required. "We went in with a simple plan. We didn't want to repeat what happened against England. We wanted to finish the match with an over in hand," said Amanjot Kaur, who stroked the winning four. Before Kaur, Deepti Sharma 24 (17b) as well as Richa Ghosh 26 (16b) too kept up with the scoring rate. They could do it, thanks to the assuring presence of Rodrigues who was masterminding the chase. "I knew Jemi was set. So I asked her if we should charge or not. She felt the runs were good and can take it forward and target bowlers," said Kaur. That's precisely how meticulous run chases are executed and pressure is transferred to the opponent. India pushed even the impregnable Allysa Healy to drop a sitter. "It was un-Australian to not be clinical," Healy said. For the second time in a long time, she was at the receiving end of another masterclass from India....