The Indian hockey team's dismal run continued as they crashed out of the Asian Games medal competition for the first time on Sunday.

Since hockey was introduced to the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, India has always finished the competition with a medal.

However, 2006 has not been a good year and they crashed out of the preliminary stages following a 3-2 loss to China and a 1-1 draw with South Korea on Sunday.

Needing to win the game against South Korea to qualify for the semifinals, India attacked from the first whistle, but South Koreans were up to the task of defense and limited India to a single shot in the first half.

South Korea held the upper hand in the first half with two penalty corner attempts. Harpal Singh and Delip Kumar Tirkey were equal to Jang Jong Hyun's penalty corner flick and gave India hope going into the break.

India had no choice but to start with an all-out attacking line-up in the second half. South Korea were awarded a penalty corner in the 41st minute, which Jang converted to give them a 1-0 lead.

India's Ragunath Vokkaliga equalised from a penalty corner flick in the 57th minute to send the Indian fans wild, setting up an exciting last 13 minutes. Ultimately, India failed to score another goal and the 1-1 draw was not enough to prevent them crashing out of the competition.

"I was sad about the game and we played our very best. I have no complaints against South Korea for they also played a good game," said Indian captain Dilip Kumar Tirkey.

"This is the deciding game for us, and we had to win this. We had some chances from the penalty corners, but we failed to score. In the last couple of minutes if we had scored it would have been different," said Adrian Souza of India.

In another match of Pool B, Bangladesh beat Oman 5-3 in a match marred by brawl and battle at the end.

South Korea qualified for the semifinals as the winners of Pool B, while China joined them as runners-up from the pool.