On a night that demanded the highest-ever chase in a Women's ODI, Jemimah Rodrigues not just rewrote history books, she also rewrote her own script with an epochal 127* under pressure to knock out the defending champions. The crafty innings was a statement, reminding everyone of her match-winning temperament after she had endured a torrid round robin stage.

In Part 2 of her detailed recollections of the successful tournament with Cricbuzz, Rodrigues reveals how she broke down the epic chase with her co-conspirators, overcoming a sense of 'deja vu' when it looked like history would repeat itself, and more.

She begins by recounting the conversations in the dressing room as India considered the prospect of facing Australia in a semi-final without the injured Pratika Rawal.

On the night of the unfortunate incident that happened with Pratika, we spoke about how we are going to play for her but we are not going to talk about any negatives like, 'Oh, why did it happen?' We spoke that we are going to try and be positive. We spoke about it [that] we know it's hard, but we're going to do it for Pratika.

As for Australia, I remember, for some reason, a few of us girls had the discussion like, 'You know, Australia is more vulnerable in a semi-final than a final.' And that was the mindset we had. So, we were like, maybe what [semi-final draw] has happened is good because of the past history. Even last year in the T20 World Cup, South Africa had defeated Australia in the semifinal. The 2017 World Cup, where Harry di [Harmanpreet Kaur] played that knock [and] Australia lost in that semi-final... So, we were like, maybe what has happened has happened for good.

On a personal level, Rodrigues held one key focus during her preparations.

I do reflect on games after every match. I always write, 'Okay, this is what I did well; this is what I could do better.' So I don't think I did anything different. I just learned from my mistake in that Australia [round-robin] game. I just went out and made sure I finished the game.

I knew that with Australia we would have to chase big targets. But my preparation for this has been over the last one and a half years, two years, whenever I'm in the nets. I always put myself in challenging scenarios. Like some days, when I walk in, I'll tell Kranti Anna or Sachin Bhaiya [throwdown specialists] that in six balls, I need to get 16 runs. Because batting at No. 5, I have to be prepared for every situation, even as a finisher. And there are some days, I'll just give targets of 8 runs. Some days, 6 runs. And I'll keep trying to achieve and they have to set a field and make sure I don't get those runs. Try and get me out. So, I keep practicing for that.

But I think even the other night [in training] before the Australia game, I did try to attack. Like try to hit every ball and try to see what happens. But somehow, when I was trying to do that, I was going a little further away from my game. And it was not coming off that well. So then in the nets, I went back to my original plan which has always been there - that I keep being positive in my intent.

As Australia batted first, the question was how many runs they would get on a good wicket. Then at short notice during the chase, Rodrigues was told she'd go in at one-down again after Shafali Verma's comeback ended early.

In the first innings, I was fielding and I was preparing to chase down a target, like how much it will be? And then Phoebe Litchfield just goes bang, bang, bang, just taking our bowlers on, and Perry comes in, both of them are having a solid partnership. In my head I was like, aaj 400 hai [look's like we're chasing 400 today].

I was stressing a lot during fielding. 'Oh no, what if they score 400, what then?' It's a big game, it's a big game, and you want to win it. But then, something on the inside just told me that, you can't control how much they'll score. Rather just be in this moment of fielding, just do whatever you can here. And then when the score comes, we will adjust to what we need to score. But stressing about it now won't help you.

Our bowlers pulled back really well for that D.Y. Patil pitch, for that outfield. Yes, 339 was a big score, no doubt, but I felt with the way Australia started off things and with their batters, they were 20-30 runs short. I was like, 'Oh, I was targeting 400, but 339 looks less only.' It was not overconfidence, just one thought came.

Usually when something like this happens, I know there is going to be a change in the batting order. I went to Smriti [Mandhana] and asked, is it the same batting order? She was like, for now, it is the same. Harry di [Harmanpreet Kaur] also said it will be the same batting order. So, I was not supposed to walk in at No. 3 at that moment.

So, I went and took a shower because I had a long fielding session. With Australia, you have to run a lot and you are always on your toes. It's very intense. For more than 30-35 overs, I was doing deep-to-deep. So I just dipped my legs in the ice bath to feel fresh. While taking a shower, you could hear the discussions; something was happening. Harry di was also in the next shower. One of the physios comes in, Akanksha ma'am. She tells Harry di that Amol sir has called her. That's when I realised that something was happening.