Former Latin American champions Argentina beat New Zealand 2-0 in the other league match. India will now take on New Zealand to decide the third and fourth places before tomorrow's final.

India began well and held nippy Aussie forwards at bay till the half hour but it were two penalty-corner goals from Stacy that did them in within a space of five minutes.

India, who required to beat Australia by a margin of six goals to clinch a spot in the final, were outwitted by the fitter Aussies who adopted inter-positional play to good effect.

The Aussies used bench strength to their advantage while India persisted with Virender Singh as the central striker even though he shaped badly.

Anil Aldrin led the Indians in the absence of Baljit Singh Sainiwho had suffered a fracture on the left cheek bone in the last game against New Zealand.

Sukhbir Singh Gill, who plays as right-half in place of Saini, had an outstanding game, as did centre-half Thiruvallavan. The medios succeeded in thwarting the speedy Aussie wingers and strikers, particularly the dangerous Stephen Davies and Baeden Choppy.

However, India exposed a weakness to foil penalty-corners and Jay Stacy, scorer of a hat-trick when the two teams had clashed in the first leg at Sydney, was on song again.

India earned their first penalty-corner when Sabu Varkey steered himself to the circle only to be obstructed by full-back Michael York, the Australian captain. Aldrin's shot was off target, however.

India wasted another chance when Rajesh Chauhan took a wee-bit too long to hit home first time after being set up by mid-fielder Thiruvallavan.

Australia, who occasionally brought body play into their game, got away by mediocre umpiring by Poleri (Argentina) and MC Cracken (New Zealand) and itundermined the smaller-built Indians.

Australia shot ahead in the 31st minute after Ramandeep stick-fouled inside-forward Paul Lewis. The resultant penalty-corner was converted by Stacy after Brett Livermore.

Baeden Choppy was a thorn in the Indian defence and combined superbly with Davies. The pressure exerted fetched another penalty-corner, a minute before the breather. Stacy did not disappoint, shooting to goalkeeper Jagdish Poonappa's right to make it 2-0.

India changed goalkeepers in the second half, playing Jude Menezes for the first time in the tournament. They also brought in Baljit Singh Chandi as a withdrawn forward replacing Varinder.

India met with immediate success after resumption of play when they reduced the margin. Chandi dribbled his way past three defenders before releasing to Sabu Varkey who was obstructed inside the striking circle by Sproule.

Aldrin played the dummy at the resultant penalty-corner, leaving Chauhan to shoot past Diletti in the 36th minute to make it 2-1.

Indiaraised their game a few notches in search of the equaliser but the Australian defence were in no compromising mood.

The home side came close to increasing the lead but Dilip Tirkey strove manfully in the Indian defence to ward off danger from Paul Lewis and Mathew Smith.

India thus finished the league phase of the tournament with seven points, behind Australia and Argentina.

Earlier, playing to a plan, Argentina beat New Zealand 2-0 to grab full points and a berth for tomorrow's final. Jorge Lombi scored both goals on either side of the interval.