India’s Gurbaj Singh (left) vies for the ball with Pakistan’s Akhtar Ali in Kuantan, near Kuala Lumpur, on Sunday. (Reuters)

Kuantan (Malaysia): Defending champions India opened their Asia Cup campaign with a loss, going down 2-3 to archrivals Pakistan in a nervy rain-marred Pool B match at the Wisma Belia Kuantan Hockey Stadium here Sunday.

With this win and the draw against China Saturday, three-time former champions Pakistan are assured of a place in Thursday’s semi-final, while India will have to win their last pool match against the Chinese on Tuesday to qualify for the last-four stage.

The opening half was high on pace and both teams displayed attractive hockey with the ball continuously moving from one end to the other. Of the two, Pakistan, who lost to India 1-2 in the Azlan Shah Cup here last month, were the more aggressive and found the net in the fourth minute through Tariq Aziz from the top of the semi-circle but umpire John Right ruled out the goal due to an infringement.

Caught on the back-foot by Pakistan’s early attacks, the Indians went into attack mode and very nearly came to scoring in the 13th minute only to be denied by the experienced Pakistan custodian Salman Akbar. India opened the scoring against the run of play after Prabjot Singh converted a rebound from skipper Sandeep Singh’s penalty corner in the 15th minute.

But with just two minutes remaining for the breather, Pakistan replied with Hasneem Khan scoring with a reverse stick from a counter attack. Experienced centre-forward Rehan Butt, who made a comeback to the national team in this tournament, made it 2-1 for Pakistan from a goal-mouth melee in the very first minute of the second half.

India soon drew parity in the 10th minute through Rajpal Singh’s field goal before heavy rain suspended play for nearly 40 minutes.

However veteran Sohail Abbas, ensured a happy outing for Pakistan when he scored the winning goal off their fifth short corner in the 55th minute through a powerful drag-flick which beat Indian custodian Baljit Singh.

Thereafter, India got two penalty corners and a couple of chances to equalise, but they muffed all with goalkeeper Akbar coming to Pakistan’s rescue.

S.V. Sunil was the star performer for India but was unlucky not to have his name on the scoresheet.