India’s junior men’s team bounced back from its loss to Germany in the semifinals and beat Pakistan 6-5 in penalty shootout (3-3 draw in regulation time) to clinch bronze at the Sultan of Johor Cup on Saturday. They finished their campaign with the ninth medal in 11 editions of the under-21 tournament.

Arun Sahani scored at the 11th minute mark and gave India the lead. However, Sufyan Khan scored the equaliser for Pakistan in the 33rd minute. And then nine minutes later CB Poovanna restored the India's lead again.

With continuous back and forth, in the 50th minute of the game, Abdul Qayyum levelled the score again which was followed by a goal from the India side from captain Uttam Singh. However, for the third time in the match, Pakistan found the equaliser with skipper Hannan Shahid scoring from a Penalty Corner.

At the end of regulation time, the score was 3-3. In the penalty shootout, both teams managed to score in the first four attempts. Then Pakistan’s Murtaza Yaqoob missed the target and Amandeep also failed to close the match sending the shootout to a sudden death.

After that India took the first successful shot with Vishnukant Singh who found the back of the goal post but, Pakistan’s Arshad Liaqat levelled the score. Finally, in the sixth round, Indian goalkeeper saved Shahid’s goal and broke the deadlock to seal the win for India after Angad Bir Singh's lead.

India will next be in action at the FIH Junior World Cup, which will be played in Kuala Lumpur from December 5 to 16.