CANBERRA, April 14: A confident Indian team steamrolled Malaysia 4-1 in the mens Four-Nations Challenge field hockey tournament on Wednesday. Despite the comprehensive win , Indian team coach Rajinder Singh said more work was needed for his team to gel in time for the Olympic Games in Athens this August.

It was not all one-way traffic as Malaysia started brightly and stunned India by scoring from a penalty corner in the fifth minute. Malaysia also limited their opponents to one first-half penalty corner, which Len Aiyappa duly converted with a high flick to the top left hand corner.

But India capitalised in the last five minutes of the first half as Malaysia's defence started to tire, scoring twice to take a handy 3-1 lead into the half-time break. Deepak Thakur took a pass from the left in front of goal for the easiest of finishes before Prabhjot Singh netted with a drive from the edge of the circle.

Malaysia applied pressure to Indias defence in the second half to earn two penalty corners, but to no avail. India's coach then brought Interjit Kumar and Harpal Singh into the fray to good effect.

Interjit slotted into attack immediately and made two shots on goal before helping to force a penalty corner, which Len Aiyappa again converted with a waist-high flick.

Play was brought to a standstill with 10 minutes remaining, however, as the pitch was plunged into darkness for 47 minutes. After play resumed Malaysia pressed India but without reward.

In an earlier match, Australia played a fast and furious game to overcome South Africa 4-2. South Africa clung to a 1-1 score at the break and fought back to 3-2 in the middle of the second half, but wilted in the last 10 minutes as Australia powered to a well-deserved win. -AFP