The South Koreans looked more at home on a rain-soaked surface and had too much speed and skill against an Indian mid-field which at times appeared to be asleep, reports Australia Association Press (AAP).

Despite the resounding loss, Indian coach Ramesh Parmeswaran said he was not too disappointed as his team contained several young players who were still finding their feet in the international arena.

``I think our preparation were a bit poor and we were perhaps a little unlucky today as we didn't have the ground conditions to our potential,'' he said. ``We don't play on this kind of surface. But that's not an excuse. We played quite badly in the mid-field that was our major problem. And our mid-field is supposedly quite strong. But looking ahead I'm confident the boys can do better.''

Both teams began thematch cautiously probing each others defences for the first half hour until Korean half Seong Kae Jung broke the deadlock with an easy close-in goal.

Indian goalkeeper Edward Aloysius managed to block the attempt but his fellow defenders were slow to clear and Jung managed to gather and push the ball past Aloysius' pads to put South Korea one up.

The scorecard remained that way into the break as both teams attempted to slow things down.

But South Korea went into the second period with renewed enthusiasm and after just two minutes captain Jong Ha Jeon launched a slow run from halfway and found Jung again lurking unmarked to his left.

Jung was on target for his second and just over 10 minutes later striker Jong Ho Seo hammered home another goal after exploding past three Indian defenders and chipping over the top of a sliding Aloysius.

Soon after South Korea went 4-0 up, this time off a penalty corner. A series of passes inside the circle found Hyung Bae Han who converted with a powerful shot whichkeeper Aloysius barely even laid eyes on.

Anxious to avoid embarrassment, the Indian midfield tightened their act and substitute forward Baljit Singh Chandi scored on an acute angle from six metres out.

But South Korea, in the final moments, rubbed salt into the wound with a pair of spectacular goals, one to Yong Bae Kim off a rebound and another to Jong Hyun Hwang following a slick series of passes stemming from a penalty corner.

The Indians, who lost a Test series to South Africa last month, need to improve their performance or may face another ignominous outing in the double-leg tournament.

India will meet Canada tomorrow before the tournament moves on to Sydney for the second leg.

Aussies ambushed: Earlier, in driving rain, the young Australian team was ambushed 0-4 by the spirited Canadians, who scored their maiden victory against the kangaroos in 15 encounters.

The Champions Trophy winners found the rival defence, particularly custodian Mike Mahmood, tough to breach. Mahmood came up withsome superb saves as the hosts dished out a mediocre performance with scrappy midfield play and poor passing.

The Canadians, Pan American Games gold medallists, went into lead through Rob Short as early as the fifth minute and continued the onslaught. Andrew Griffiths made it 2-0 in the 15th minute and Peter Milkovich added another in the 32nd to make 3-0. Ian Bird completed the rout with a goal in the 68th minute.