India has shown explosive hockey against host Japan in its last group stage match. India defeated Japan 5 - 3 to secure 2nd spot in the 'pool A' behind Australia. Harmanpreet Singh gave India a 1 - 0 lead from the penalty spot in the 12th minute. After this, India scored the second goal in the 17th minute.
After this, the first goal for Japan came in the 19th minute. Kenta Tanaka scored his first goal for Japan in this match. India maintained a 2-1 lead over Japan till half time. Japan equalized India by scoring a goal in the 31st minute, but soon after, India once again took the lead. Shamsher scored the third goal for India.
Team India completely dominated the fourth quarter; Nilakanta scored another goal in the 51st minute, later in the final minutes of Gurjeet scored the 5th goal for India and made this match almost one-sided. Though Japan shortened the goal difference by scoring the 3rd goal in 59th minute.
Indian players managed to win the match with their exciting performance. Gurjan Singh scored two, while Nilakanta, Shamser and Harmanpreet scored 1 goal each. India defeated the Rio Olympic gold medalist Argentina by 3 -0 in their previous match.