KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12: Defending champions Pakistan handed world champions Germany their first defeat in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup on Monday in a thrilling 4-3 match at the National Hockey Stadium.

Pakistan rallied three times to draw level and skipper Mohammad Nadeem capped a fine outing by scoring the winning goal six minutes before the end of regulation time.

Pakistan retain the top spot in the standings and only need one point from their remaining two matches against Malaysia and Australia to book their berth in Sunday's final.

"It is a good win and the players showed good fighting spirit though we were down three times in the match," said Pakistan coach Roelant Oltmans. "We increased our tempo in the closing stages and that is what caught the Germans off guard."

The match was played at breathtaking speed with both teams going on attack and bludgeoning each other with a flurry of goals.

Germany scored first through Matthias Witthaus a minute before the halftime break. But Sohail Abbas drew Pakistan level through his trademark penalty corner conversion in the 42nd minute.

Three minutes later Benjamin Koepp sneaked in the German's second goal, and Sohail once again drew Pakistan level when he sent a low flick into the left hand corner of the German goal.

The Germans were not unnerved and went straight for the Pakistani goal, with Bjoern Michael scoring in the 54th minute. Four minutes later Waseem Ahmad went on a mesmerizing run on the left flank but was stopped illegally by German skipper Florian Kunz resulting in a penalty stroke which Sohail duly converted.

Nadeem broke through the heart of the German defence before playing a neat one-two with Shabbir Hussain and scored the winner in the 64th minute. In an earlier match Malaysia's aggressive play failed to top a still rusty Australia, who beat the hosts 3-2.

It was the Australians first win of the tournament after losing their first match to Spain 3-1 and drawing 1-1 with South Korea in earlier play.

"We tried some players out of position today and the experiment worked well," said Australian coach Barry Dancer. "In terms of penetration we did well but our overall performance is still not up to expectations. Our defenders were guilty of ball watching but we look forward to a better display against India."

Australia will clash with the South Asian giants on Tuesday, and hope to take all three tournament points from that encounter. "It is going to be a totally different ball game against India and we are not treating the match lightly," Dancer said.

Australia opened scoring in the 11th minute when Grant Schubert and Ben Bishop combined well to set up Travis Brook, who had the easiest of tasks guiding the ball into an empty Malaysian goal with keeper S. Kumar well beaten.

But Malaysia threw caution into the wind and took the game to the Aussies, scoring the equalizer in the 18th minute when Keevan Raj pounced on a rebound off the pads of Australia keeper Mark Hickman to scramble the ball over the goal line.

A lapse in the Malaysian defence cost the home team dearly when Troy Elder converted Australia's first penalty corner in the 31st minute to give Australia a 2-1 lead going into the breather.

Kumar, who has been having a good tournament so far, was guilty of gifting Australia its third goal when he padded the ball straight to Elder, who scored in the 52nd minute.

Malaysia reduced the deficit two minutes later when Azlan Misron caught a loose ball in the Australian semicircle to score, but they failed to get their third goal and had to settle for a loss.

Tuesday's fixtures: