Captain Harmanpreet Singh's second helped India to a historic 3-2 win over Australia in their final Pool B match, with the Indian defense securing the win.

New Delhi: Two goals from captain Harmanpreet Singh led the Indian men's hockey team to a memorable 3-2 win over Tokyo Games silver medalists and reigning champions Australia in their final Pool B match on Friday.

Sealed in the quarter-finals ahead of Friday's encounter, the Indians played valiantly and dominated the main part of the match to stun the Kookaburras, against whom they last won at the Olympics in the 1972 Munich edition.

India seemed to have saved their best for their last pool match as they put in a strong performance, playing aggressive hockey from the start and defending throughout.

Abhishek (12th), skipper Harmanpreet (13th, 33rd) scored for India while Tom Craig (25th) and Blake Gowers (55) scored for Australia.

With this win, India will likely finish their pool play in second place with nine points and behind table toppers Belgium (12), who still have a match to play. Even if Belgium lose the match against Argentina, the pole position will not change.

The goal difference after that match will determine the final position.

The Indians started aggressively and entered two circles in the first two minutes.

India's veteran custodian PR Sreejesh, who was playing his last international, came up big in front of the target with some crucial saves to deny the Kookaburras.

In the 11th minute, Sreejesh made his first save to deny Tom Wickham, which resulted in a penalty corner. But Jeremy Hayward's result went off target.

Germanpreet Singh then played a pass to Sukhjeet Singh from the right side. He just wanted to deflect the ball but couldn't block the powerful strike. He collected the ball and was ready to strike until his attempt was easily thwarted by the Australian team's strong defence.

Australia created two chances at the back, but India's defense held firm.

In the 12th minute, India surprised Australia with Abhishek's goal. Lalit received a pass in an empty D, he tried to shoot but it was saved by goalkeeper Andrew Charter. Abhishek took the ball on the rebound, turned and hammered past rival goalkeeper Andrew Charter.

A minute later, India were awarded a penalty corner after the ball hit the feet of Jake Harvey and Harmanpreet beat the Charter defense hard.

Tim Brand had a chance to reduce the deficit early in the second quarter but hit the ball wide.

Australia earned their second penalty corner of the match in the 19th minute but Gowers' shot was saved by Sreejesh.

Vice-captain Hardik Singh was alive in mid-field, feeding the forwards consistently.

Australia got their third short cormer in the 25th minute. It was a poor injection from captain Aran Zalewski but the Australians quickly recovered and turned it into a goal, passing to an unmarked Craig at the second post, who turned the ball in.

India too soon got a penalty corner but this time Harmanpreet's strike was blocked by Charter. India were leading 2-1 at the interval.

India got their third penalty corner when Manpreet Singh was tackled by an Australian defender. Harmanpreet's goalmouth strike is blocked by Flynn Ogilvy. India took the referral, resulting in a penalty stroke.

And Harmanpreet made no mistake converting the opportunity.

Australia got another short corner second early in the third quarter but failed to capitalize on the opportunity.

The Indians also earned back-to-back penalty corners in the final quarter, only to squander them.

In the 53rd minute, Abhishek scored another superb goal after being fed by Mandeep Singh, but the goal was disallowed due to a stick check.

Five minutes after the final hooter, Govers closed the gap with a seventh goal on a penalty stroke.

After that, the Indian defense stood tall to deny the Australians a famous victory.