Holland’s Floris Evers (left) fights for the ball with South Africa’s Gregg Clark during a Olympic qualifier in Madrid on Tuesday. (AFP)

Madrid: India came up with a listless display to be content with just a draw against minnows Belgium in a pool B match of the Olympic qualifiers late Tuesday.

The Indians made heavy weather of what was expected to be an easy outing for them and failed to overcome the resurgent Belgians, who made them pay dearly for sloppy work in the middle.

India frittered away lots of opportunities and missed six penalty corners as Belgium held them to a 1-1 draw under lights.

Len Aiyappa converted from the sixth penalty corner to push India ahead in the 62nd minute before a 66th minute equaliser by Belgium dashed their hopes of bagging full points from the match played in bitterly cold conditions.

Charles Vandeweghe’s goal came at a time when India were reduced to 10 men after Baljit Singh Dhillon left the field with a yellow card.

India will next meet Malaysia on Thursday.

Though the Indians were by far the superior side, they found it difficult to penetrate the tight Belgian defence. The Asian side broke through the Belgian circle to force two penalty corners but failed to convert them. Skipper Dilip Tirkey’s direct hit was way off the mark and Gagan Ajit Singh fouled in his attempt to stop Deepak Thakur’s push.

The midfield performed with reasonable assurance, but did not acquit itself in ball distribution. Baljit Singh Dhillon had to play from a deeper position to carry the ball.

Dhillon executed a couple of brilliant through balls but these remained unutilised.

At the other end, the Indian defence had a relatively quiet time, barring two occasions when the Belgians launched a few attempts at the goal. Devesh Chauhan, however, easily parried the shots.

On resumption, the Indians continued to press hard but without success as the forwards repeatedly went out of position and failed to combine. Meanwhile, the Indians also had their share of luck as Belgium missed a couple of sure goals.

Towards the close, India forced a sequence of three penalty corners, the last of which was converted by Aiyappa, but the lead was shortlived.

Earlier, the Netherlands turned in a fine second-half performance to outclass South Africa 5-1 (pool A) while Pakistan pulled up their socks to flatten Canada 4-2 (pool B).

Sohail Abbas made ample amends for his first-half penalty stroke miss and converted two of the five penalty corners in the 37th and 51st minutes to spearhead Pakistan’s victory charge.

Kashif Jawad put home a Ghazanfar Ali pass in the 41st minute and then Shakeel Abbasi struck the fourth goal in the 58th.

Pakistan then turned complacent and allowed Canada to score through Ken Pereira and Paul Wettlaufer, respectively.

In other matches, Poland surprised Great Britain 2-1 (pool A) and hosts Spain enjoyed a comfortable 6-1 win against Japan (pool A). (PTI)