Mercurial striker Shakeel Abbasi scored twice to give Pakistan a big win over the Chinese team that came a day after the Greenshirts struggled to overcome Malaysia 3-2 in their opening match of the six-nation tournament.

The result left Pakistan in a strong position as they have full victory points from two outings and a solid goal average of plus 4.

It wasn’t easy in the beginning as China gave Pakistan a tough time in the first half, which ended with a 1-1 score-line.

But the Pakistanis came out in an aggressive mode in the second session, scoring three goals to cruise to a comfortable victory. Abbasi, Pakistan’s vice-captain was the hero for the team with a brace while youngsters Umar Bhutta and Shafqat Rasool scored one goal apiece.

“It was a good match for us because our players, especially the youngsters played really well,” said Khawaja Junaid, Pakistan’s manager. “We played a close match against the Malaysians but today our team was in complete control and that’s a great sign ahead of tougher matches against India and Korea,” added Junaid, a former Olympian.

After a rest day on Monday, Pakistan will meet minnows Japan on Tuesday. In other matches Malaysia will take on China while India will face formidable Korea in a must-win encounter.

The Indians on Sunday suffered a blow when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Japan. India seemed set for a big win over Japan after thrashing China 5-0 on the opening day of the tournament on Saturday.

But their erratic display in the first session allowed Japan to steal an important point from the match.

The turning point of the match came in the 50 minute when defender Rupinder Pal Singh was sent off reducing the Indians to ten men.

Michael Nobbs, the Indian coach, said that the yellow card proved costly for his team.

"We lost our composure there and Japan turned on the pressure. Those are the things we need to learn," Nobbs was quoted as saying in a post-match interview.

Nobbs lamented that his players committed too many ‘silly errors’ in the match.

"Japan played well in the second half. But we made some silly errors in the end and we paid for it," said the Australian.