The India under-19 team blanked hosts Malaysia 3-0 to win the four-nation invitational hockey tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

India scored through Tushar Khandekar (12th minute), skipper Prabodh Tirkey (33rd) and Vinay (57th).

The India juniors were in superb form in the tournament. They beat arch-rivals Pakistan and South Korea in earlier matches.

Today too India asserted their strengths from the outset, and were rewarded in the 12th minute when Tushar Khandekar slotted home a ball played into a crowded 'D' from open play.

Malaysia, who drew with India in the opening round of the tournament, tried to come back in to the match, particularly after Vivek Gupta was yellow-carded, but the home side failed to penetrate the Indian defence.

India nearly gained the lead when Hari Prasad rounded the goalkeeper after being released on the left. But with a defender on the goal line still to beat, he hit the side netting.

The let-off for Malaysia was short-lived with India's strength, pace and skill continuing to force them on to the back foot, and in the 33rd minute a well worked penalty-corner was fed through to captain Prabodh Tirkey, who drove the ball sweet and hard into the bottom left corner.

Trailing 0-2 at the breather, Malaysia came out transformed in the second session and for the next 25 minutes the Indian goal was under intense pressure.

But the nearest the team in yellow came was when Mohd Fairus Hamsani struck the inside of the post from close

After Malaysia failed to make a sequence of three penalty-corners count, an Indian breakaway culminated in Vinay sweeping a rising cross-shot into the goal to kill off the game in the 57th minute.

India gave the Malaysian goalkeeper plenty of work in the closing minutes with man-of-the-match Gurcharan Singh prominent in attack.

"In today's match our strength was midfield and team play," said coach Harinder Singh while underlining that the tournament had provided a platform for the Asia Cup in Pakistan in 2004, and the 2005 Junior World Cup.

Malaysian coach Stephen van Huisen conceded: "India was the better team, more mature and more capable."

Huisen's show of grace in the face of defeat contributed to Malaysia picking the Fair Play award.

Tirkey was named player of the tournament, while Pakistan's Yasir Islam won the accolade for most promising player.

Pakistan took third place, thrashing South Korea 7-0 in the play-off match.