India easily won their opening match in the Asia Cup hockey tournament, beating China 5-1 at the Bukit Jalil stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

In other matches, Pakistan routed Bangladesh 8-0 after leading 3-0 at half-time, while Japan overpowered Hong Kong 7-3.

Malaysia held Asian Games champions South Korea 1-1.

Two goals apiece by Dilip Tirkey and Prabhjot Singh were the highlights of India's victory.

As the scoreline suggests, the Indians called the shots right through but were denied more goals because of some stout-hearted defending by the chinese.

They opened their account within five minutes following their first penalty-corner. Dilip Tirkey's rasping drive saw the ball enter the cage off a defender.

Prabhjot Singh had a couple of chances to increase the lead soon after but delayed when ideally placed inside the circle and was dispossesed.

Gagan Ajit made it 2-0 in the 20th minute, finishing off a pass from Dhanraj Pillay.

Immediately on resumption in the second session, Tirkey scored his second goal from India's third penalty-corner. He did well to follow up on his hit after the ball ricochetted off the Chinese goalkeeper's pads and slammed home.

A free hit from just outside the circle gave India their fourth goal five minutes later. Ignace Tirkey's diagonal hit went across the circle and an unmarked Prabhjot, lurking at the far post, had the easiest of tasks of tapping into goal.

China managed to pull one back off their third penalty-corner through Song Yi six minutes later but that was the best they could come up with.

Prabhjot completed the rout in the 60th minute, scoring from a melee after Viren Rasquinha worked his way along the touch line and pushing the ball across the face of the goal.

Earlier, Kashif Jawaid scored a hat-trick in Pakistan's big win. His goals came in the 21st, 46th and 61st minutes while penalty-corner ace Sohail Abbas scored in the 26th and 62nd minutes.

Mudassar Ali (9th), captain Nadeem Ahmed (36th) and Rehan Butt (64th) accounted for the other goals.

The Malaysia - Korea match was a thriller. Korea went ahead in the third minute through Lee Jung Jung before Malaysia equalised through Chua Boon Huat three minutes before the breather.

Japan had things their way against Hong Kong. Kenichi Katayama (40th, 56th), Ryu Ji Furusato (61st, 68th), Akira Takahashi (12th), Nao Hiko Tobita (50th) and Kazayuki Ozawa (64th) scored for Japan while for Hong Kong, Pritpal Singh Chima (20th), Ali Akbar (51st) and Arif Ali (69th) scored.