India's ability to handle crowd pressure along with the art of launching regular counter attacks helped them down the mighty Australian colts in the first semi-final here on Friday.
The hosts scored a dramatic 4-2 tie-break (2-2 regular time) victory to secure entry into the final. This is the third time India will be involved in the summit clash of the tournament and will face Belgium in the title contest on Sunday.
While intensity was the reason Indian colts remained dynamic through out the second half, it all started after Australia converted their penalty corner in the 14th minute of the first half through Tom Craig.
The only time the title favourite Aussie side actually looked like they were better than the hosts, was in the first 15 minutes of the match.
As a strong 15,000 crowd raised the pitch of their voice after India went 0-1 down, Indian colts also changed to top gear and took the play to Aussie half.
Playing to a plan, which was also adopted by Spain in the earlier clash, Australians marked Indian forwards closely in the first few minutes. The man to man marking left Indians a little frustrated and the goal from Aussies appeared to have jolted them awake in the first half.
Indians went out for lemon break disappointed at not having equalised. But the way the forward line up launched counter attacks soon after resumption, the Aussie defence appeared to be in disarray.
The manner in which Gurjant Singh took control of the ball before 25-yard line and then hit a perfect angle with a reverse flick to score the equaliser is something of a rarity in Indian hockey.
Australians should consider themselves lucky that they held India to a 2-2 draw in the regular duration. The equaliser came in 57th minute as ball accidentally kissed Lachlan Sharp's stick before beating Indian goalie Vikas Dahiya.
Australia colts also tried to spring few surprises on Indian defence with counter attacks in the last 10 minutes but never threatened Dahiya with a real chance. However, Burras secured two consecutive penalty corners in the 22nd minute. Dahiya again came to India's rescue and denied Blake Govers from the second attempt.
And when final hooter was sounded, Aussies walked off the pitch knowing their two goals were gifts from an Indian defence, which a sports psychologist would probably define as 'Harakiri'.
Otherwise, the goal from Mandeep Singh in the 48th minutes was enough to make it to the finals after a gap of 15 years. India won the Junior World Cup title the last time it played finals in 2001 in Hobart.
As the shoot out started, Dahiya who was part of senior squad during the Rio Games, rose to the occasion and made two splendid saves to deny Australia's Matthew Bird and Sharp.
Indian colts, on the other hand, were not ready to bog down to pressure of winning at home. Harjeet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit and Manpreet (Jr) all kept their cool to found the back of Australian net.
India had the better share of possession in the opening half but it was Australia who utilised their chances.
Belgium beat champion Germany
Earlier, Belgium stunned six-time junior champion team Germany 4-3 in the first semifinal to enter the final. Both teams failed to score in the regulation time as Belgian goalie Loic van Doren's came up with a stand out performance during the crunch moments. He, in fact, made two brilliant saves in the shoot-out to deny Germany's Philip Schimid and Tim Herzbruch.
Australia and Germany will also now take on in the bronze medal match on Sunday.
