Busan: Defending champions India put up a spirited fight before going down 3-4 to hosts South Korea and settling for the silver medal in the 14th Asian Games on Saturday.

Young Jugraj Singh almost turned India's hero before he shoulder charged a Korean inside the 25-yard line to concede a penalty corner off which Korea scored the winner before a packed stadium.

Keon Wook Kang (24), Woon Kon Yeo (30), Seung Tae Song (44) and Yeon Woon Koon (68) were the Korean goal scorers while India hit back through Jugraj Singh (48, 60) and Gagan Ajit Singh (53).

The win was also a sweet revenge for the Koreans who lost to India in the final of the last Asiad in Bangkok. India, which lost to Korea 2-4 in the recent Champions Trophy, had held Korea to a 2-2 draw in a pool match last week.

After a forgetful first 45 minutes in which it conceded three goals, India counter punched superbly and almost had Korea on the mat making it 3-3. But in the end the Koreans had the last laugh scoring the winner in the dying minutes.

Though disappointed at not being able to defend the gold, Indian coach Rajinder Singh, said the team showed great character in fighting back. "In the first half we failed to click but in the second half we came back strongly and the players tried their best to win the gold," he said.

Earlier, Pakistan ended its campaign losing to Malaysia in the bronze medal match 3-5 in the tie-breaker. The two teams were locked 1-1 after extra time. This was the first time that Pakistan finished out of the medal bracket in the Asian Games since the introduction of the sport in 1958.

It was also Pakistan's first loss to Malaysia since 1986. It has so far won seven golds, two silvers and two bronze medals in the Games.

India and Korea began cautiously and tried to assess each other in the opening minutes of the final. The Koreans had done their homework well and closely marked India's danger men Gagan Ajit Singh and Dhanraj Pillay.

The ploy worked well and this blunted the Indian attack. As the match progressed past the first quarter, Koreans slowly took charge with more of ball possession while the Indians began to make basic errors in trapping and passing.

The Koreans played at a good speed and waited for India to commit mistakes and the Indian strikers found it difficult to penetrate the tight defence.

Pillay, playing as a withdrawn forward, in particular was fumbling for most part of the first half and Gagan also failed to break the shackles. On the other hand, the Korean forwards kept threatening the Indian goal and the pick of their strikers was Seung Tae Song who played in the German league for almost two years. His marker Ignace Tirkey had a tough time and more than once Song slipped past Tirkey.

PTI