India's hopes of making it to the semi-finals of women's Junior hockey World Cup in Santiago, Chile, suffered a major setback when they were held to a goalless draw by Argentina.

The Indians dominated the Pool F encounter, played on Sunday, but poor finishing cost them dear.

They would now have to win their next two matches, against Scotland and Korea, and hope that other results to go their way to make it to the last four of the competition.

India have four points from their three matches so far, winning one and drawing two.

The Indian girls made repeated forays against the Argentines, who seemed tired after their outing against Korea, whom they beat 1-0. But the forwards failed score, resulting in just a solitary point.

The draw took the South American team to the top of Group F with seven points, one clear of Korea and Germany. India, who had the chance of reducing the gap, are currently fifth in the group standings.

In another Group F match, Korea got the better of Germany 2-1.

In other games, the United States defeated Chile 3-1 while the Netherlands scraped past Australia 3-2.