Tokyo: The Indian ladies’ hockey group scored a late objective to squeeze out a tight 1-0 triumph over Ireland in an absolute necessity dominate penultimate pool game to remain alive in the Olympics on Friday.

Requiring a success to keep their expectations alive after three back to back misfortunes, India stood by restlessly for 57 minutes before Navneet Kaur scored the champ to save her side in the chase for a quarterfinal compartment.

India will presently have to win their last Pool A match against South Africa on Saturday and expectation for Ireland to confront rout because of Great Britain to seal their quarterfinal billet.

The best four groups from each pool fit the bill for the knockout stage.