India kept former champions Australia at bay till the 50th minute before eventually losing their AFC Asian Cup football tournament opening group match 0-2 in a gritty performance here on Saturday.

Australia were the overwhelming favourites to win the Group B match and nobody gave India a chance but Igor Stimac’s men denied their mighty opponents any success in the first half and then five minutes into the second session, dishing out a superb defensive show.

The Indians, though, ran out of steam later on in the face of waves of attacks from the rampaging Australians, who won the title in 2015 and are ranked 25th in the world as against 102nd of Stimac’s team.

Jackson Irvine (50th minute) and Jordan Bros (73rd) scored for Australia to take home three points from the match at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan.

India, however, did better than their 0-4 loss to Australia in a group match in the 2011 Asian Cup.

The Indians would not be too disappointed by the margin of loss. Perhaps, they would be happy to have conceded just two goals, which may prove beneficial later on when the third-place team is decided from the group.

The top two teams from each group, along with four best third-placed sides from across six groups, progress to the knockout round-of-16.

A knock-round berth will be a huge achievement for India.

Stimac had told his players before the Australia match to remain compact defensively and avoid giving away set-pieces if they want to deny the physically and technically much superior Australians from scoring goals.

His wards executed his plans to the ‘T’ in respect to the first instruction but was less successful in the second as the Australians got enough set pieces, though most of them were corner kicks, to score. But to the credit of the Indians, they did not concede any goal from the set pieces.

For almost the whole first 45 minutes, the Indians sat really deep with all the 11 players, including captain Sunil Chhetri, defending in their own half as the rampaging Australians did all the attacking.

With no Indian attack bothering him, Australia captain and goalkeeper Mathew Ryan stationed himself near the centre line.

India, though, got one golden chance in the 16th minute, but Chhetri missed it. Nikhil Poojary worked on the right flank and sent a beautiful cross and Chhetri sneaked out of three defenders to head the ball towards the Australian goal but it went wide.

The vociferous crowd, mostly Indian supporters, in the 45,000-capacity stadium could not believe it, so too the Indian dugout.

But, it was the Australians who were all over the place as they came in waves of attacks and crosses from both the flanks as the Indians crowded in their box and threw in their bodies at times to block the shots.

Defensive mainstay Sandesh Jhingan sustained a cut on his right forehead after an aerial duel in the first half and he played with a bandage.