But the Malaysians kept up their attack and were rewarded in the 20th minute.
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The other competing teams in tournament are Korea, Pakistan, Oman and Bangladesh, who are placed in Pool B.
Meanwhile, Pakistan survived a bullish first half scare from South Korea on Sunday before pulling away a 3-0 win in another Pool B match.
But against the run of play, India hit back to draw level. Three minutes later they found the victor through a penalty corner conversion by Shota Yamada.
It is China’s second defeat in the tournament and are likely to finish at the bottom of the table should they lose to the strong Indian side on Tuesday in the last preliminary round match.
The second half saw Muhammad Bilal Qadir score a field goal in the 39th minute to lift Pakistan 2-1, with Rana Riaz wrapping up the match with a 70th-minute field goal to end the match 3-1 in the Greenshirts’ favour.
India, however, came back strongly to level 1-1 within 10 minutes of the first half through forward Mandeep Singh.
Malaysia won the first game 4-1 and led in the match against India on two occassions – though they were eventually unable to prevent India from winning the match. Soontrailing 2-1, India pressed hard for goals in the second half, but in the process conceded a penalty corner.
Malaysia took the lead on the first minute of the game, with Shahrul Saabah firing home after a defensive mishap from India.
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Ten minutes later Harmandpreet was again on target for India’s fourth goal and Mandeep scored his second in the 61st minute to seal all the points. I am happy that we fought back in the second half to narrow the deficit.
