NEW DELHI: The Indian women's team has reached the final of the 2017 Asia Cup, beating hosts and defending champions Japan 4-2 in a closely contested semi-final in Kakamgigahara on Friday to set up a rematch of the 2009 summit clash against China.

India's opponents in Sunday's final, China, are two-time winners of the Asia Cup in 1989 and 2009. In the 2009 final, China beat India 5-3. The winner of this year's edition will qualify for the 2018 World Cup in England.

Goals from Gurit Kaur (7th, 9th minutes), Navjot Kaur (9th) and Lalremsiami (38th) underlined India's victory, which took them to a fourth Asia Cup final; India won the title in 2004 and finished runners-up in 1999 and 2009.

Ranipal’s team will face China in the final on Sunday, November 5 - having beaten them 4-1 in the league stage just a few days ago.

Not surprisingly, given her superb form, it was Gurjit who gave India their first goal by converting a penalty corner in the seventh minute. In the ninth minute, that scoreline became 2-0 as Navjot added a fine field goal and Gurjit slotted in her second goal of the match. Japan did not sit idle for long, however, and recovered to make it 2-3 at half-time. Shiho Tsuji opened Japan's account in the 17th minute, and 11 minutes later a field goal from Yui Ishibashi left the home fans cheering.

he third quarter saw Lalremsiami score her first goal of the tournament to put India ahead 4-2, and the defenders did well to keep the Japanese at bay thereon.

India entered the knockout stage of the tournament following wins over Singapore 10-0, China 4-1 and Malaysia 2-0 to top their pool, and on Thursday defeated Kazakhstan 7-1 in the quarter-final.

India's opponents in Sunday's final, China, are two-time winners of the Asia Cup in 1989 and 2009. In the 2009 final, China beat India 5-3. The winner of this year's edition will qualify for the 2018 World Cup in England.