India lifted the women's Asian Champions Trophy through a last-minute winner from Deepika Thakur, who smashed home a rebound from a penalty corner to beat China 2-1 in Singapore on Saturday.
Deep Grace Ekka gave India the lead towards the end of the first quarter from a penalty corner before the young Chinese side came back with an equaliser through Zhong Mengling in the third quarter.
As in the round-robin game between the two sides, there was very little attacking play but towards the end of the first quarter, India won a penalty corner, which was converted by Deep Grace Ekka.
The goal encouraged India to show a little more adventure and Vandana Katariya almost doubled her side's lead with a neat reverse hit but China keeper Yu Yaran made a good save.
Yaran was called into action towards the end of the first half, coming out of her area and clearing out a pass from Narinder Kaur. China pushed India on the back foot on the other side of the interval and earned a penalty corner. China won two more fouls but just as in the semis, the Indian defence held firm to clear the ball out.
China smarted from those wasted penalty corner attempts through a field goal with one minute left to the end of the third quarter. The Chinese capitalised on goalkeeper Ranjani Etimarpu's poor clearance. Mengling tapped the ball into the net from close range.
India left it late but were rewarded for their play when Deepika smashed home the winner in the final minute. After a referral, the officials handed the goal to India, who registered their maiden ACT win.
Brief score:
India 2 (Deep Grace Ekka, Deepika Thakur) beat China 1 (Zhong Mengling)
