Malaysia and India through

Malaysia and India will battle it out for 5th place in the men's hockey competition after winning their respective 5th/8th classification matches at Al-Rayyan Sports Club this afternoon.

Malaysia will meet India in the 5th/6th playoff on Thursday 14 December after they brushed aside challenges from Bangladesh and Chinese Taipei. The Malaysian's defeated Bangladesh 6-1 in the first classification matches.

They were 5-1 up in the first half after Jiwa Mohan opened the scoring for Malaysia in the fifth minute before team mates Chua Boon Huat, Muhamad Amin Rahim and Muhammad Razie Abd Rahim each got their name on the score sheet.

Mohan added his second a minute before halftime as Malaysia continued to enjoy complete dominance over their opponents, while Rahim earned his second and Malaysia's sixth from a penalty stroke.

Md Maksud Alam scored a consolation goal for a disappointing Bangladesh in the 16th minute and they will play Chinese Taipei in the 7th to 8th qualification match on 14 December.

To me, this match was important, said Malaysia's Jiwa Mohan, "We had to win it to get into the fifth place playoff. We had hoped to be the best in this tournament, but now unfortunately we are fifth. We have enjoyed this tournament and we will be taking back good memories."

In the second 5th/8th classification match, India pummelled Chinese Taipei 12-1 with India's Ragunath Vokkaliga scoring five goals.

India took a 2-0 lead with both goals scored by Vokkaliga from penalty corner drag flicks. Fan Kuo Heng of Chinese Taipei managed to pull a goal back immediately while the game was still a contest, but Shivendra Singh scored India's third just before halftime.

In the second half, India stepped up the pressure and scored nine more goals through Tejbir Singh, Shivendra Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Adam Sinclair, Rajpal Singh (2) and Vokkaliga (3).

"Speaking after their match, India's captain Dilip Kumar Tirkey said, "Today's match was nice, Ragunath [Vokkaliga] did a great job and played a fantastic game. Today we were lucky with short corners.

"We played a relaxed game against Chinese Taipei and also an easy game in the first half, so we missed a lot of chances. The passing was a little bit relaxed and we did too much missing."