KUALA LUMPUR: 'Captain Marvel' Uttam Singh scored the winner as India fought back to edge European champions the Netherlands 4-3 today to reach the semi-finals of the Junior World Cup (JWC) at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
The Netherlands took a healthy 2-0 lead, and many felt it was the end of India.
However, the Men in Blue battled back, with Uttam delivering a stunning winner.
India scored through Arjun Lalage (34th minute), Araijeet Singh (35th), Anand Kushwaha (52nd) and Utam (57th).
Timo Boers (fifth), Heijden van Der (16th) and Oliver Hortensius (44th) netted for the Dutch side.
"It is the story of the tournament. We could not defend our 2-0 lead, allowing India to fight back," said Netherlands coach Jesse Mahieu.
"However, India played well. It is a big disappointment, as we expected more from this match."
A delighted India coach CR Kumar said his players deserved to be in the semi-finals.
"They played well and came back fighting after the Dutch took a 2-0 lead."
India will play Germany, who defeated defending champions Argentina 2-1 in an earlier quarter-final match, in the semi-finals on Thursday.
"We lost to Germany in our last two meetings, and I believe they will be overconfident against us. My players just need to make minimal mistakes and take their chances to achieve a positive result," Kumar added.
Uttam, who squeezed between two Dutch defenders and deflected the winning goal three minutes from the end, said: "Before we stepped onto the pitch, I told my teammates that the Dutch are European champions, and we are Asian champions, so there is no difference between both teams.
"If they can score goals, so can we.
"When we were down 2-0 during half-time, our coach told us that if the Dutch can score two goals, we can score four, and those words motivated us. We are now in the semi-finals," said Uttam.