The two powerhouse teams in the women's game will meet at Lord's on Sunday (AEST) with Sophie Molineux's Australia, their place in the semi-finals already almost assured, in a position to knock Harmanpreet's outfit out of the tournament should they win.
But India remain confident they can earn the victory over their old rivals that would most likely earn them a reprieve, pipping South Africa of the second-place in group one that would enable them to advance to the last four.
The South Africans, who defeated India last weekend, continued their own impressive progress at Bristol on Thursday evening, Tazmin Brits blasting the second-highest individual score in the tournament's annals with her unbeaten 114 as they beat the Netherlands by 88 runs.
It means they'll go into their final match against Bangladesh, which will precede the Australia-India match at Lord's on Sunday, with six points, the same as India, but with an inferior net run rate.
The Proteas' NRR is 0.734 to India's 2.268, but the South Africans will expect to narrow the gap further with a convincing win over Bangladesh before the Australia-India decider.
Australia, on a maximum eight points from their four matches, have a huge NRR of 4.724, which leaves them almost untouchable even if they lose.
But skipper Harmanpreet is confident her side can defeat their greatest rivals, just as they did in the semi-final of the 50-over World Cup last October in Navi Mumbai on their way to the title.
"We've fumbled today but hope to get our best next game. All set for Australia, one of our best oppositions," said the 37-year-old skipper.
"We know that these tournaments, when every game is must-win, you have to give your best. We'll get a lot of confidence if we win that match against Australia. our last win in Navi Mumbai gave a lot of confidence and broke barriers."
India, though, were sloppy in the field, dropping four catches even as they managed to restrict Bangladesh, who'd opted to bat, to 8-136.
But the key dropped catch came when India replied, Shafali Verma being spilled behind the stumps fourth ball.
Reprieved, she went on to hit 53 off 34 balls, easing the way for India to get to their target of 5-139 with 19 balls remaining. Yastika Bhatia made 23 and Jemimah Rodrigues 26.
At Bristol, it was all about Brits, whose ton, which featured 15 fours and three sixes, has only ever been topped in T20 World Cups by Australian skipper Meg Lanning's 126 against Ireland in Bangladesh 12 years ago.
Brits' maiden T20 century, which featured her sharing an opening stand of 121 with captain Laura Wolvaardt (45), propelled the Proteas to 1-208, and though the Netherlands battled to 1-100 by the 15th over, they lost their last seven wickets for 20 runs.
Ayabonga Khaka (3-19) finished the job with three wickets in the final over as the Dutch ended on 8-120, and evergreen South African quick Shabnim Ismail, who's come out of retirement to lead their charge, took her 48th World Cup wicket to equal the all-time record of Australia's Megan Schutt.
