India's defence held its ground against a desperate Great Britain, as the visitors clinched a 2-1 victory in the 36th Champions Trophy and moved to the top of the league standings with four points.
Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh stood his ground against a number of shots at the goal, including four from penalty corners. India made use of a breakaway opportunity created by right winger SV Sunil, and their defenders covered the angles well to emerge victorious.
Playing deep inside their own territory in the first quarter against early British raids, India scored through Mandeep Singh on their first raid by Sunil, in the 17th minute.
Harmanpreet Singh then converted a penalty stoke in the 33rd minute, while Britain pulled one back through a penalty corner conversion by Ashley Jackson, in the 35th minute.
Forcing two penalty corners in the initial three minutes, Great Britain were denied by Sreejesh who blocked shots from Sam Ward and Jackson. India continued to stay in their own half as Great Britain's strikers repeatedly broke into the scoring zone, but were not able to take a good crack at the goal.
Ward did not succeed in his diving attempt to reach a Jackson cross from left in the 12th minute and David Condon's shot from top of the circle in the 15th minute went wide to the right.
Against the run of play, India took the lead in the 17th minute on their first good move when Sunil's fine run on the flank saw him break into the circle. Sunil's cross into the goalmouth scraped past a defender's stick and Mandeep capitalized on the chance by pushing the ball into the goal.
A few minutes later, Mandeep could have again featured in a goal-bearing move when he picked up a through ball deep in the British half. He was in a one-on-one situation with the only defender in front and could have burst forward, but instead misdirected a back-pass.
India earned their first penalty corner when Mandeep put the ball on to a defender's foot. VR Raghunath's low drag-flick was blocked by goalkeeper George Pinner, but Danish Mujtaba continued the attack on the rebound and it resulted in the second penalty corner.
This time Raghunath's rising drag-flick struck captain Barry Middleton on the shoulder and the umpire blew for another penalty corner, which was upgraded to a penalty stroke on a review sought by India.
Harmanpreet duly converted the penalty stroke with a stinging flick into the top left corner of the goal despite Pinner making a good judgement to dive in the correct direction.
Trailing 2-0, Great Britain pulled a goal back within two minutes when India conceded a soft penalty corner following a defensive error.
Jackson's rasping drag-flick converted the third penalty corner into a goal by placing the ball just under the cross-bar.
The Indian goal came under threat once again in the 46th minute, but Sreejesh managed to deflect Simon Ward's shot just wide of the right post.
Mandeep could have scored another goal in the last minute when Great Britain had taken off their goalkeeper. Mandeep got a long ball from Harmanpreet, but carried the ball as he stepped into the circle with an open goal in front.