PERTH (Australia), April 23: Defending Olympic champions Australia battled back from a first-half deficit to beat China 2-1 in the opening round of the four-nation hockey tournament here on Wednesday.

The Australians fell behind after Chinese striker Hu Hui Ren converted a penalty corner in the 24th minute.

But the home side knuckled down with a dominant second-half performance to overcome the 17th-ranked Chinese with a 62nd-minute penalty corner conversion from Grant Schubert and a field goal three minutes later from the 2007 world player of the year Jamie Dwyer.

“There was obviously a huge difference in our play during the second half,”Australian coach Barry Dancer said.

“In particular our intensity lifted in the second half as did our pressure when they had the ball as we were far too passive in the first half.”

In the earlier match, South Korea downed India 4-1.

Results:

South Korea 4 India 1

Australia 2 China 1

—AFP