Jemimah Rodrigues, with tears rolling down her face, told the 34,000 assembled at DY Patil stadium and everyone watching her on TV, that she had cried almost every day of the last month, wracked by anxiety and in a terrible place mentally. Despite it all, she had just managed to shush an Australian juggernaut, scoring 127 off 134 balls in a record 330+ chase.

Her place in the side under unfair scrutiny, her batting spot shuffled about, as she even got dropped mid-World Cup, the perennial plus-one to other batters, treated like an afterthought, had lost her usual smile and cheer and song. Glee got replaced by gaunt. But out of that furnace of uncertainty, emerged a knock of a lifetime as India defeated the mighty Australians, chasing down a mammoth 339 to sensationally reach finals of the

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