India beat Australia 4-2 in a thrilling shootout on Friday to send them into the final of the Junior Hockey World Cup in Lucknow.
India were helped by keeper Vikas Dahiya’s heroics and the Australian side’s indecisiveness in the tense shootout.
The visitors opened the account in the shootout through Blake Govers. Harjeet Singh levelled things up. Australia missed their next two efforts even as India took the lead through Harmanpreet Singh and Sumit.
Joshua Beltz kept Australia in the game, India though converted the decisive goal through Manpreet Singh to set up a final clash against Belgium on Sunday.
Earlier, the game rested on an an even keel as the two teams ended normal time with the score at 2-2.
India had gone into half-time trailing Australia 1-0 as Tom Craig gave them the lead in 14th minute.
India responded well in the second half. They equalised in the 42nd minute as Gurjant Singh charged forward and scored with a fierce reverse hit to level the scores.
India took the lead six minutes later as Mandeep Singh scored after a smart link-up play with Nilkanta Sharma who set up Mandeep to score through another reverse hit.
The game though was forced to go into a shoot-out after Lachlan Sharp found the back of the net, with a sharp deflection, to make it 2-2.
The score
India 4 beat Australia 2 via shootout; FT: 2-2
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