India secured the third place at the 47th King's Cup and their 1-0 victory in Buri Ram on Saturday laid to rest for good the claim that their Asian Cup win over the War Elephants was a one-off fluke.
Anirudh Thapa's first half goal helped India pile on the misery on the Thais, who finished last only the sixth time in the history of the four-nation competition.
India had defeated the Thais 4-1 in the AFC Asian Cup group stages in January under Stephen Constantine.
Saturday's result gave the Blue Tigers' new coach Igor Stimac of Croatia his first victory with the team in a Fifa-sanctioned event.
Thailand were beaten 1-0 by regional rivals Vietnam on Wednesday, when India suffered a 3-1 loss to Curacao in the other game.
Thailand interim coach Sirisak Yodyardthai apologised to the fans after the War Elephants suffered their second straight loss, and failed to win the title for the second year in a row.
"First of all, I would like to say sorry to the Thai football fans that we could not achieve our target for the tournament," said Sirisak.
"The players did their best but we do need to improve many things.
"We had several chances in this match but could not convert them. Moreover, we conceded an easy goal only because the players lost concentration. We are very disappointed with the result.
"The main problem of our team is scoring. This is the big homework that we need to undertake seriously. There were some shots with which we should have scored but didn't. We have to improve this.
"I also have already told the players that we never looked smooth in our movements. We took too much time in switching from defence to attacking mode and vice-versa."
The result has also left Sirisak worrying about his future.
He said: "About my future, whether I will still be the coach or not, I cannot say anything.
"Since I became the coach of the Thai team, I have learned a lot many things at many tournaments like the Asian Cup, the China Cup and the King's Cup. I have seen the tactics of other teams and learned from them."
Stimac praised his men for following the game plan.
"This is what I wanted and every player contributed to my tactics. This victory shall make the Indian football fans happy," he said.
"I am very proud of these players as most of them are new but they can be the future stars for the Indian national team.
"It was a better performance than the last game and we were able to keep a clean sheet in this match.
"I think the match could have gone either way. Although the Thai team controlled most of the game, our defence played very well. This made the difference today."
Thailand made four changes to the team that lost to Vietnam and gave skipper Teerasil Dangda his 100th cap in the process.
Siwarak Tedsungnoen replaced goalkeeper Kawin Thamsatchanan, whose last-gasp blunder gifted Vietnam a place in the final.
Sirisak also brought in defender Pawee Tantatemee and playmaker Sumanya Purisay.
However, all this was to no avail as Adil Khan set up Thapa with a nifty cross in the 17th minute for a goal which the Indians were able to defend until the end.
