KUALA LUMPUR Dec 15: India lifted the Champions Challenge title after they pumped in a goal in each half to edge past South Africa 2-1 here Saturday.

Deepak Thakur opened the scoring for India in the 9th minute. India, the Asian Games gold medallists, doubled the lead with a 54th-minute goal from Baljit Sing Dhillion.

Denzil Dolley got the consolation for South Africa in the 58th minute.

Meanwhile, Jorge Lombi just loves scoring against Malaysia, a point the hard-hitting Argentinian underlined by bagging four goals to guide his country to a 4-2 victory and third place.

Lombi, who on Thursday scored both goals in his country’s 2-1 win over the same opponents in the group stage, also scored all four goals when the two nations drew 4-4 in the Olympic qualifiers in Osaka, Japan 21 months ago.

Lombi took full advantage of two defensive errors in the opening 24 minutes and converted a stroke three minutes from the end of the first half as Argentina’s hard running and attacking play caught the sluggish Malaysians off-guard.

He opened the scoring in the seventh minute when he capitalised on a mistake by Mohd Madzli Ikmar to shoot from the top of the semi-circle.

The forward then seized on another error when Malaysian centreback Nor Azlan Bakar slipped as he was about to tackle German Orozco. Orozco squared the ball to an unmarked Lombi to sound the board.

Lombi converted a stroke in the 32nd minute for his sixth of the tournament.

Malaysia fought back bravely in the second half and a goal each from Charil Anwar in the 45th minute and a Madzli in the 50th gave them some hope.

But it was Lombi who killed off the game with his seventh goal of the tournament when he deflected a free hit into the roof of the net.

His four goals on Saturday, added to the three he scored earlier, assured him of the top scorer’s award.

Earlier, Japan edged Belgium 5-3 in a thrilling encounter to finish in fifth place.

Saturday’s results:

Third-place play-off

Argentina 4 Malaysia 2

Fifth-place play-off

Japan 5 Belgium 3.—AFP