The young Indian hockey team dished out some impressive and fast-paced hockey in a Super 4s match against South Korea but an outright victory eluded it as a 4-4 draw pushed it out of the Asia Cup title race, here on Tuesday.
Malaysia's 5-0 win over Japan early in the day meant that an outright win became a pre-requisite for India to qualify for the summit clash.
Korea will now take on Malaysia in the final on Wednesday, while India will play Japan in the third-fourth place classification match.
Nilam Sanjeep Xess (9th minute), Dipsan Tirkey (21st), Mahesh Sheshe Gowda (22nd) and Shakthivel Mareeswaran (37th) scored for India, while Korea scored through Jang Jonghyun (13th), Ji Woo Cheon (18th), Kim JungHoo (28th) and Jung Manjae (44th).
It was a midfield slugfest between the two sides as both India and Korea tried to take upper hand in the first quarter.
In the ninth minute Nilam scored with a low flick to the right bottom corner of the Korean net past Kim from India's second penalty corner.
Two minutes from the first quarter, India conceded a penalty corner and Jang Jonghyun was bang on target to draw level for Korea.
Korea made it 2-1 five minutes later when Ji Woo Cheon chose his spot after being fed by Jungjun Lee following a defensive lapse from Pawan Rajbhar inside his own circle.
But India drew level three minutes later when Dipsan Tirkey converted team's third penalty corner. Mahesh Sheshe Gowda restored the lead a minute later, pushing home Vishnukant Singh's pass from a counter-attack.
Two minutes from halftime, Kim JungHoo equalised for Korea through a fine field goal from an acute angle as both the teams went into the breather locked 3-3.
India went all out and restored their lead in the 37th minute through an unmarked Shakthivel Mareeswaran, who tapped in a cross from Sheshe Gowda from the right flank.
A yellow card — five minute suspension — to Yashdeep Siwach three minutes from the third quarter cost India dearly as Korea equalised again when Manjae Jung deflected in a long ball from midfield.