The Indians managed to keep an aggressive Pakistan team at bay in regular time, which ended at 0-0 and was followed by another barren 15 minutes of extra-time.

While the Pakistanis faltered twice in the penalty shoot-out, India held their nerve to carve out a 4-2 triumph in the final of the elite six-nation event.

The Indians were able to get past Pakistani goalie Imran Shah through their captain Rajpal Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Yuvraj Walmiki and Sarwanjit Singh. Shah managed to block Gurvinder Singh’s attempt.

Muhammad Rizwan and Waseem Ahmed struck for the Pakistanis who agonizingly watched as Shafqat Rasool and Abdul Haseem Khan wasted their shots to hand India the title.

It is a major achievement for a young Indian team that is shaping up well under new Australian coach Michael Nobbs.

Pakistan had to pay the price for ‘resting’ Sohail Abbas, their record-breaking short corner specialist. The Greenshirts earned eight short corners in the final but failed to capitalize any of them. Sohail, who holds the record for scoring the highest number of goals in international hockey, was overlooked by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) for the Ordos assignment as it opted to give a chance to younger players in the lead up to next year’s Olympic Games in London.

Pakistan dominated most of the proceedings during the final but were unable to convert any of the countless goal-scoring opportunities that came their way.

“We were really unlucky today,” said Khawaja Junaid, Pakistan’s manager. “We were in control during the best part of the final but somehow failed to score,” he added.

Junaid, a former Olympian, said that even reaching the final with a young team was a major achievement for Pakistan, the reigning Asian Games champions.

“We decided to try out several youngsters ahead of the Olympics,” he said. “Several of our senior players were not included in the team but event then we did a good job. The final was a close encounter and unfortunately we lost in it in a tie-breaker,” he said.

Pakistan had rested a few senior players including Sohail Abbas, striker Rehan Butt and goalie Salman Akber for the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy.