Nikkin Thimmaiah scored a hat-trick as India produced its best performance of the tournament to stun world champions and title holders Australia 4-2 on Saturday.
Already out of title race, India came up with a complete performance that had Australia on the back foot for most part of the match.
India scored a goal each in all the four quarters through V.R. Raghunath (1st minute), Nikkin (23rd, 32nd, 60th), while Australia’s goals came from the sticks of Daniel Beale (14th) and Matt Gohdes (53rd).
By virtue of this win, India finished their league engagements with seven points from five game and will now face Korea in the play-off on Sunday.
The Kookaburras struggled for ball possession throughout the match and their defence crumbled when put under pressure by the Indian forwards.
Barring the two soft goals which they conceded, there was no blemish in India’s performance.
India were by far the better side on display in the entire 60 minutes as they dominated the proceedings against all expectations.
The Indians were off to a great start as they went on the offensive from the word go and in the process earned two penalty corners in succession with the very first move of the match and Raghunath converted the second set piece with a booming flick to give the side an early lead.
The Indians continued in the same vein and had another great chance in the 10th minute which was wasted by Satbir Singh who scooped over with only the approaching Australia goalkeeper Tristan Clemons to beat.