India scored a hard fought 4-3 win over South Africa in the four-nation's Challenger Men's Hockey tournament.But India failed to make the final, which will be contested between Australia and Malaysia. India, who drew Australia 2-2 in their last match, had suffered a shock 0-3 defeat to Malaysia in their opening match to finish with four points behind Australia (seven) and Malaysia (six) after the round-robin matches. India will now meet South Africa again on Sunday at the Hambush Olympic Park to decide the third spot. Close matchThough South Africa took a 1-0 lead in the 15th through Greg Nicol, India restored parity within four minutes when Deepak Thakur found the target. Star striker Gagan Ajit Singh then put India ahead in the 27th minute. Changing ends, Nicol struck again for South Africa to level the scoreline at 2-2 in the 48th minute. But the Indians quickly changed gears and wrested the initiative back with goals from Arjun Halappa (58th) and Inderjit Kumar (62nd).The Africans still managed to pull one more back in the very last minute through Reece Basson. Indian coach Rajinder Singh was happy with the win and said his team will go all out to win the third place. "The team played well, but we could have made more goals. 4-3 is a narrow margin but we got only one short corner," he said. "Today, some of the seasoned players like Prabhjot Singh played only for a short time due to injury. We will go all out to pose a major fight tomorrow to clinch the third position in this tournament". In today's other match, Australia cruised to an easy 5-1 win against Malaysia. The two teams will clash again in the final on Sunday. (PTI)
India beat South Africa 4-3
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