India beat Italy 1-0 in the semifinal of the FIH Women's World Cup qualifier in Hyderabad on Friday evening. India's place at the World Cup was all but confirmed before the semifinal itself, owing to their place in the FIH World Rankings, but now there is no such need for any technicalities, as Sjoerd Marijne's side booked their place in Saturday's final against England, courtesy of Manisha Chauhan's first goal of the tournament.
It took 40 minutes for the goal to arrive, and when it did, there was more than a touch of fortune about it. Manisha's dragflick first deflected off the first rusher, and then took a further deflection off the Italian defender on the line before dribbling over the line.
For the bulk of the first half, it didn't seem like the goal would come for India, as they made too many errors in the basics, with passes not going to teammates and traps not being made, which denied India any chance of building momentum.
Lola Brea was a threat throughout for Italy, and had two presentable opportunities in the first quarter, both of which were denied by Bichu Devi in the Indian goal.
India came alive in the last few minutes of the second quarter, as they had a string of opportunities both from open play and penalty corners, but Lucia Caruso was sensational in the Italian goal, as she made some superb saves to keep India at bay.
Eventually, that nearly proved huge for Italy, as they won themselves a penalty corner with a minute to play in the game, but Ivanna Pessina's powerful dragflick was superbly saved by Bichu Devi moving to her left, in what was the last meaningful action in the game.
Italy will face Scotland tomorrow in the third-place playoff, with the winner of that game taking the last available slot at this summer's World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium.
India, on the other hand, will face England in the final, World Cup place sealed, looking to continue their improvement under Marijne, before a hueg European sojourn.
You can relieve the semifinal, as it happened, in our live blog below: