Bhubaneswar, June 13 :India edged past Vanuatu 1-0 to book themplace in the Hero Intercontinental Cup Final, at the Kalinga Stadium here Monday night.It was the Blue Tigers’ seventh straight win on home soil, a run thatincludes six clean sheets.After a dominating 80 minutes in which the hosts created countlessopportunities but lacked the cutting edge, it was Sunil Chhetri’ssensational 86th international goal for India which ultimately settledthe game.Earlier in the day, Mongolia held Lebanon to a goalless draw after agritty defensive display, which meant three points for India were enough to seal their final berthHead coach Igor Stimac made as many as nine changes to the side thatovercame Mongolia 2-0 on Friday. Only captain Sunil Chhetri andSandesh Jhingan, who made his 50th Blue Tigers appearance, maintainedtheir place in the eleven which also had Nandhakumar Sekar making hissenior international debut.The first half was a story of misfiring shots from the Blue Tigers.With Vanuatu sitting tight at the back in the opening stages, ListonColaco and Nandhakumar shot over the bar from long range.Sunil Chhetri also missed a couple of headed opportunities – first,heading over a good-looking Kotal cross from the right before failingto properly connect with Mahesh’s looping delivery just beforehalf-time.Mahesh, handed his first start for the Blue Tigers by Stimac, was thearchitect of most of India’s opportunities. The East Bengal manslipped in a great through-ball for his new club teammate Nandhakumar,who could only fire wide.Liston, who had earlier spurned a half-decent opportunity by skying alay-off from Chhetri, eventually got India’s first shot on target. Hispowerful strike from the edge of the area was initially spilled byVanuatu goalkeeper Massing Kalotang but he quickly gathered it on thesecond attempt before Chhetri could pounce.Mahesh switched over to the left wing after the break, but continueto send in dangerous crosses into the middle but Chhetri headed wideonce again from just outside the six-yard box.and Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, after whichIndia’s urgency in attack went up a notch.As time progressed, Vanuatu began sitting deeper and deeper hoping tosalvage a precious point. But the hosts were not to be denied asChhetri broke the deadlock by notching his 86th international goal forIndia. Left-back Subhasish Bose, making his first internationalappearance in over a year, delivered an inch-perfect cross for Chhetriin the penalty area, and the skipper chested it down perfectly beforevolleying it in with aplomb as the ball nestled into the roof of thenet.India, now top of the table with six points, will next playsecond-placed Lebanon on Thursday, June 15 at 19:30 IST. The finalwill take place on June 18.India XI: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (GK), Pritam Kotal, Sandesh Jhingan,Mehtab Singh, Subhasish Bose, Rowllin Borges (Sahal Abdul Samad 61′),Rohit Kumar (Anirudh Thapa 61′), Liston Colaco (Jeakson SinghThounaojam 61′), Naorem Mahesh Singh, Nandhakumar Sekar (LallianzualaChhangte 66′), Sunil Chhetri (C) (Rahim Ali 85′).(UNI)