MADRID, March 6: Pakistan outplayed arch-rivals India 5-3 thanks to four-goal Sohail Abbas in the Olympic hockey qualifying round match on Saturday.

Former world champions Pakistan opened the scoring with an early Sohail goal in the second minute of the first half and added another through the penalty corner specialist in the 28th minute.

India reduced the margin with a 33rd-minute Thakur goal before a 34th-minute Rehan Butt strike.

Sohail poached his third in the 41st minute, while India's BS Singh scored the second in the 42nd minute. Gagan netted the third for India in the 44th minute, while Sohail wrapped up the game with his fourth in the 62nd minute.

Earlier on Friday hosts Spain fought back to hold the Netherlands 2-2 and put the two teams joint top of Pool A.

Poland have a tenuous grip on third place after a 6-0 thrashing at the hands of South Africa, as Britain achieved their first points with a poor 1-0 victory over winless Japan.

Sunny skies brought out a capacity crowd to see Spain play the Dutch in what could possibly be the match of the tournament.

The Netherlands performed well in the first 20 minutes through Rob Reckers and Nick Meijer, but Spain came back with Santiago Freixa scoring from their fourth penalty corner after the half-time hooter, getting a flick high and to the left of Guus Vogels in the Dutch goal.

"The Netherlands played well in the first half," conceded Spanish coach and former Dutch coach Maurits Hendriks. "In the second half the guys revved it up and we came close to winning."

The Netherlands lost the midfield competition in the second half.

Earlier Tom Bertram converted Britain's third penalty corner after Ben Hawes had two unsuccessful hits, shooting inside the right post past the feet of Jun Takahashi in Japan's goal.

Danny Hall had two chances to put Britain ahead in the second half but fluffed backstick shots twice from a metre in front of goal. Niall Stott also put a shot into Takahashi.

The standard of play of both teams fell away in the second half.

Jun Takahashi was the hero for Japan, saving seven of Britain's penalty corners and six field goal shots.

"We were confident of the result but had we played better in the previous two matches we would have been more confident and put away more of the chances we had," said British coach Jason Lee.

"We addressed many of the issues yesterday in small groups and I think there has been an improvement in our performance since the first match," Lee added.

"I tried to give my players confidence and to urge them to win this vital match today," said Japan coach Toichi Nagai.

South Africa's Greg Nicol scored four goals with Wayne Denne and Reece Basson adding two more in their 6-0 demolition of Poland which lifted them from the bottom to fourth on the table.

With the score 4-0 at half time, South Africa coasted in the second half yet still found space out wide to run possession at Poland and make 10 shots on goal and earn four penalty corners.

Poland's Mikula brothers Artur and Piotr dribbled through the middle of the pitch but lost possession to South Africa's watertight defence.

"We did not think about any of South Africa's players before the match and we have not heard of Greg Nicol before," said Poland coach Jerzy Joskowiak.

South Africa coach Paul Revington looked stunned by the comment, particularly as Nicol has more than 200 international goals and 168 caps.

Other Saturday results:

Belgium 2 New Zealand 2

Malaysia 3 Canada 2-Agencies