Rosario. China beat Investec South Africa 4-1 at the Hockey World Cup for women here in Argentina on Friday. This after the scores were locked at 1-1 at half-time.

This leaves South Africa needing a big performance on Saturday against the sixth ranked side, England.

Coach Giles Bonnet's side had a dream start when a fourth-minute penalty corner saw birthday girl Pietie Coetzee's pass deflected past Chinese goalkeeper Li Dongxiao by a sliding Jen Wilson, who timed her run to perfection.

South Africa missed a number of chances in a dominant first half but after the changeover the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games silver medallists hit back and a Gao Lihua brace plus captain Fu Baurong's beautiful finish was added to Ren Yee's first-half effort.

"We started well but a lapse in concentration cost us and we went into the second half knowing we would need to fight to hang in there," captain Marsha Marescia said afterwards.

"But we put ourselves under pressure and allowed them to come at us. We let ourselves down with our overall performance but there are a lot of positives we can take into our game against England tomorrow."

Halfbacks Lisa Deetlefs and Marcelle Keet were the standout players for Investec South Africa.

Women's World Cup table after Friday's matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):

Pool B

Argentina 3 3 0 0 10 2 9

England 3 2 1 0 5 3 7

South Korea 3 1 1 1 3 3 4

China 3 1 0 2 5 4 3

South Africa 3 1 0 2 5 10 3

Spain 3 0 0 3 3 9 0