The Indian women's hockey team made its first Asian Games final in 20 years, outlasting three-time champions China 1-0 in a fiercely-contested battle here on Wednesday.
Gurjit Kaur's strike from a penalty corner in the 52nd minute was the difference between the two sides, in a match that lacked the quality of a high-profile semifinal.
Nonetheless, the erratic show was good enough for India's first appearance in the final since the 1998 Bangkok Games.
India's only title at the Asiad came way back in 1982 when women's hockey made its debut.
India will now face Japan, who upset five-time champions South Korea 2-0 in the other semifinal.
It was not the most fluent of matches with both India and China failing to create opportunities in the field.
"The team surely did not play to its potential in the first half. They stepped up in the second half and I am really happy for these girls. I know how much work they put in to be here. They trained really hard for this event. Japan will be a tough challenge but the team is up for it," said India coach Sjoerd Marijne.
In the do-or-die fourth quarter, India earned as many as three corners in a jiffy. On the third attempt, Gurjit finally got it right as her shot flew past the goalkeeper and found the top of the net.
With eight minutes left on the clock, China tried hard to equalize and a shoddy Indian defence was lucky to scrape through.
Men’s to face malaysia
Brimming with confidence after scoring record number of goals, title holders India will be eyeing another dominant outing as they take on tricky Malaysia in the semifinal of the men's hockey on Thursday.
India displayed great attacking hockey in the pool stages and pumped in as many as 76 goals in five matches here to create the world record of maximum goals ever scored in a tournament.
And going by form and class, India will be the favourites to prevail over Malaysia, who finished second in Pool B behind Pakistan.
The Indians looked class apart in the pool stages, the only blemish being the three goals they conceded against Korea.
"Ideally we would have liked to keep a clean slate. That was the plan of our defence but we made silly defensive errors against Korea. We have watched the videos of that match again to analyse where we must correct ourselves before we take on Malaysia, who play very cautious hockey," Sreejesh said.
(India vs Malaysia: match starts at 4pm)