India's campaign in the AFC U-20 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2023 Qualifiers suffered a jolt when they went down to Australia 1-4 at the Ali Sabah Al-Salem Stadium, here on Sunday. This was India's second consecutive defeat in the four-team group as they were beaten 2-4 by Iraq in the earlier game. Like in the match against Iraq two days back, on Sunday too, India were beaten but were certainly not disgraced even if the scoreline pointed towards a rout.

Trailing by two first half goals, India displayed lots of spirit in the second, and pulled one back through skipper Gurkirat Singh, whose sudden long ranger in the 63rd minute caught the Australia goalkeeper Jack Warshawsky on the wrong foot before hitting the post and going in. It wasn't the only time when Shanmugam Venkatesh's boys had the Australia defence in trouble. In fact, on more than one occasion the Indians came close to bringing down the rival goal, but poor marksmanship and bad luck denied India at least a couple of goals that could have made the story of the day a little different.