India’s Len Aiyappa and Lee Jung Seon of South Korea in a tussle for the ball in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. India lost 2-3. (AFP)

Kuala Lumpur: India’s woes continued as they slumped to a 2-3 defeat against Korea in a league match of the Azlan Shah Cup Hockey tournament here on Wednesday.

With their fourth defeat in five matches, India now lie at the bottom of the table with one point. The Koreans have seven points from five matches.

Initially, the Indians appeared to be on top following Len Aiyappa’s 17th minute penalty corner conversion, but the Koreans swung into action and pumped in three goals to seal the fate of the Indians.

Yoon Young Sik (25), Yeo Woon Kon (29, 37) ensured a win for Korea though India salvaged some pride with a 64th minute penalty stroke goal by Arjun Halappa.

The Indians, without their two most experienced forwards — Dhanraj Pillay (knee injury) and Baljeet Singh Dhillon (fractured nose) — failed to build on the good start that Aiyappa provided with his first strike.

The Koreans gradually took control and the penalty corner goals through Sik and Kon in a four-minute spell saw the Asian games winners take the breather with a 2-1 lead.

The Korean equalizer though was controversial. Sik claimed a goal after a quickly taken free-hit but umpire Juan Manuel Reqena of Spain awarded a 16-yard hit to India. On protest by the Koreans, Raqena consulted his colleague Stefan Brenner of Germany and signalled a goal.

Pak, Malaysia draw

Pakistan settled for a 1-1 draw against Malaysia in the Azlan Shah Cup Hockey tournament on Wednesday.

The hosts went ahead when Kuhan Shanmuganathan converted a penalty corner in the 43rd minute, but the Pakistanis came back on level terms in the 48th minute through Sohail Abbas.

The draw virtually confirmed Pakistan’s entry into the final with a tally of 13 points from five games, while Malaysia inched up to three.

In another match, three penalty corner conversions in the final 18 minutes saw Germany pull off a remarkable 4-4 draw with Spain after trailing 1-4 in the Azlan Shah Cup on Wednesday.

World champions Germany, yet to recover from their 3-4 shock defeat against Pakistan, gave a mediocre performance in the first-half as the Spaniards raced to a 4-1 lead at the break on goals by Santiago Freixa (4, 31, 35) and Pol Amat (28).

True to their spirit, Germany came surging back late in the game as Florian Kunz (52 and 66) and Bjoern Michel (69) netted the penalty corners to add to Christoff Eimer’s 11th minute strike. The draw took Germany’s tally to 10 points from five while Spain moved to five from as many outings. (PTI)