There weren't just a few dejected faces haunted by the sense of deja vu - Jemimah Rodrigues was among them.

She'd been there thrice before, besides Harmanpreet Kaur, helping India close in on Australia's target before it suddenly slipped. She would either watch from the dugout the panic-induced collapses following the captain's dismissal in clutch situations costing India silverware, or she'd been part of it.

In the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold-medal clash, their wickets in quick succession after a stellar 96-run standsaw India lose by nine runs in pursuit of 161. Few months later, Harmanpreet's unfortunate run-out left India needing 40 from 32but they succumbed to 167 for 8 to miss out on a finals berth of the T20 World Cup 2023. In Sharjah last year, this time the World Cup semifinals spot was on the line but Harmanpreet could only watch a collapse of 6 for 31unfold from the non-striker's end to fall nine short again.

"I remember at Harmanpreet's dismissal I also felt that way [a flashback]. I was telling Harry di that we both have to finish it; we can't leave it for the end - just because we are set and we know we can take it through. And then that happened...," Rodrigues said.

Those three had all ended in crushing heartbreaks, and Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai seemed to be following the same script. Harmanpreet's wicket, after a 167-run stand with Rodrigues, had left India needing another 113 to get from 88 to win a place in the final of the home World Cup. Losing two more wickets just as a stand had started to rebuild thereon, and a brief slowdown with every dismissal, again started to remind everyone - including Rodrigues - of past ghosts.

It was in that moment Rodrigues knew it would have to be her who stood in the way of history repeating itself.

"But actually - it wasn't a blessing in disguise for me because I was kind of losing my focus due to tiredness. But when Harman got out, that gave me more responsibility that 'okay, I need to be here', 'okay, she's out, I'll score for her [as well]'. That got me back in the right zone, and then I just started playing sensibly."

For the better part of her defining stand with the captain, Rodrigues remained close to run-a-ball to allow Harmanpreet to settle in for the long haul. The skipper stepped on the gas once the duo ticked off the century partnership. But Rodrigues, after fielding for 50 overs and batting for 30 more, was starting to lose energy, and maybe focus too. A straightforward opportunity from a fat top-edge off a slog-sweep was fluffed up by Alyssa Healy to give her a reprieve. Alana King produced a chance again in her next over with Rodrigues missing the sweep but the excess bounce on it carried the ball well over the stumps. She had slipped to 85 off 95 by then, but Harmanpreet had assumed the role of the aggressor to race to 89 off 86. Annabel Sutherland struck just then.

Rodrigues' innings had assumed all the more significance now. She was playing neither for strike-rate nor for the century today - she was fighting cramps, and more unspoken battles, to put a W on the board. Between overs, she was down on her haunches, sometimes just catching her breath back, other times praying, but mostly just reminding herself what's at stake for India.

Promoted at no. 3 - a decision relayed to her minutes before she walked in - Rodrigues found company in Deepti Sharma (24 off 17), Richa Ghosh (26 off 16) and Amanjot Kaur (15* off 8) to keep gnawing at Australia's mammoth 338. But each of the two wickets in the slog overs were a reminder that she was also playing for everyone counting on her courage.

Occasionally she also glanced up at the team's hotel, looming over the ground, where injured Pratika Rawal lay in her bed, perhaps feeling just as helpless as Rodrigues had in Indore watching the team unravel in tense chase. Rodrigues played for her too.

When the winning runs came through her partner's bat, she first lifted Amanjot in her arms to acknowledge her role in preventing a crumble before sinking to the ground herself.

Teammates ran in on cue - none faster than Smriti Mandhana and Arundhati Reddy who wrapped her up now. The circle they formed around Rodrigues mirrored their roles in her life over this anxiety-riddled tournament for her - one watching over her to keep the outside noise at bay, the other soothing the inner voice that bred doubt.

Once back on her feet, she turned her attention from her chosen family to the given family - her parents, siblings and coach in attendance - not fighting back tears anymore as she mouthed "thank you" repeatedly, hands folded and head bowed.

After masking all of the team's vulnerabilities at the crease she laid bare her own on camera, bravely speaking about her mental health struggles over the past four weeks, maybe more.

"I'll be very vulnerable here because someone watching this might be going through the same thing. And that's my whole purpose of saying it because nobody likes to talk about their weakness," Rodrigues said after her PoTM efforts in India's five-wicket win. "I was going through a lot of anxiety at the starting of the tournament. Before a few games, I used to call my mom and cry the entire time, let it all out, because when you're going through anxiety, you just feel numb. You don't know what to do. You're trying to be yourself.

"In this time, my mom, my dad, they supported me a lot. There was Arundhati who almost every day I've cried in front of... She checked on me every single day. There was Smriti who helped me. She also knew what I was going through. Few of the net sessions, she was just standing there. Even yesterday she came. She just stood there - didn't say much - but she just knows that her presence is important for me. There's been Radha who's always been there taking care of me. I'm so blessed to have friends I can call family, that I didn't have to go through it alone and it's okay to ask for help. And that's what happened. My mom went through a lot. My family went through a lot. But everyone stood by me and believed in me when I didn't. When I couldn't.

"It started with anxiety, and then I was dropped from the team. That really hit me. When you're dropped, you have a lot of doubts because I always want to contribute to the team. But that day I couldn't do much sitting out. And then when you come back in, it's a lot more pressure with everything that was happening in the past month. But sometimes all you need to do is just hang in there and things fall into place. So, I think, yeah, so I'm very grateful for the people who believed in me when I couldn't and were there for me and understood me because I couldn't do this on my own.

"I'm grateful to Jesus because just his presence and reading the Bible encouraged me in my tough times. Bible says that weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And today joy came, but I'm still weeping," Rodrigues added, wiping tears.

From someone who had seemed expendable three games ago, Rodrigues had first made a roaring comeback through an impact knock that put India in the semifinals, and then headlined a coup that dimmed Australia's halo of invincibility. That it was a record chase in World Cup knockouts across verticals mattered little - neither did the hard-fought century, or the statement it made. Rodrigues only "wanted to see INDIA WINS" flash on the two giant screens in front of the 35000-plus crowd and the crores watching from home.

Rodrigues was a 16-year-old Mumbai prodigy then, and one among the thousands that thronged the city airport in the wee hours of the morning, national flag in hand, to welcome back the runners-up batch of 2017. From being dropped in 2022, to an emotional rollercoaster in the 2025 edition, Rodrigues has now carried the very team she once celebrated to the threshold of history.

"When I reached my fifty, when I reached my 100, I didn't celebrate, because, at that moment I looked at our hotel right here, and I said [to myself]: tomorrow morning, what would make me happier? Would it be a fifty? Would it be a hundred? No, it would be India winning. And I want to sleep with that smile, that we are playing the finals, and I'm waking up to get ready for the finals."