Though beaten by a convincing margin, the Indians had their chances as they forced nine penalty corners to seven by the Koreans. But the fact remained that the Korean defence was far superior to that of India's and it ultimately made the difference.

The Koreans, as is their wont, made thrustful moves with their speedy runs and the Indian defence was often caught on the wrongfoot by the suddeness of the rival attacks. As the Korean sustained the pressure, the defence had to yield and two quick goals in the first-half virtually stopped the Indians in their tracks.

Kwan-Soon Choi converted an 18th minute penalty corner and almost immediately Seong-Eun Kim made it 2-0. The two reverses had the Indians backpedalling and, nearinghalf-time, they fell further behind as Mi-Sook Choi converted a penalty stroke following a stick-check offence.

On resumption, the Indians pressed hard to mark their presence with a goal, but the Koreans held firm and Choi rammed in another goal for a 4-0 lead.

Myung-Ok Kim then converted a penalty corner 14 minutes from the close and the Koreans should have added a sixth when they received another penalty stroke due to an obstruction by goalkeeper Tingolima. But the goalkeeper did extremely well to block the attempt by Hyun-Jung Woo, two minutes from the final whistle.

It was India's first defeat in three matches and a victory in one of the two remaining games (vs Kazakhstan on Dec 15 and Japan on Dec 16) should put India in the reckoning for a medal. Meanwhile, China routed Kazakhstan 5-2 while Japan overwhelmed Thailand 4-0 in the other league matches of the day.