Monchengladbach (Germany), Sep 17 (DPA) India finished 11th out of 12 teams - their worst performance in 20 years - in the men's hockey World Cup here Sunday.

India edged past South Africa 1-0, thanks to Rajpal Singh's penalty corner conversion in the 54th minute, in a classification match for the 11-12 positions for their first win in the tournament. South Africa had earlier held India to 1-1 draw in a Pool B match.

This is India's worst performance in the World Cup since 1986, when they finished 12th and last in England. India had finished 10th in the previous World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 2002.

Despite the pathetic performance by the Vasudevan Baskaran-coached Indian side, the country managed to book the last available berth for the 2007 Champions Challenge to be played in Belgium in the month of May, according to the world governing body of the game.

In a lacklustre display at Warsteiner Hockey Park, India, without the ageing Dhanraj Pillay and injured penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh, failed to convert opportunities into goals after making regular forays into the South African striking circle.

With the South Africans hardly posing any danger to their opponents, all India needed was a goal to clinch the 11th position. The elusive goal came when captain Dillip Tirkey aimed for the right post and it was left to Rajpal to flick the ball into goal.

It was yet another disappointing World Cup campaign by India, whose only triumph was way back in 1975 in Malaysia under the captaincy of Ajit Pal Singh.

It was a tough group for India and they lost to defending champions Germany 2-3 in their first group-match and went down to England in the second match with the same score.

India, however, managed to salvage a point with a draw with lowly South Africa but lost 1-2 to South Korea, a result that ended their hopes of a semifinal berth.

India's worst performance came with their thrashing by the Dutch. Taeke Taekema proved to be a nemesis as he slammed in five goals and also emerged as the top scorer of the tournament with an unassailable tally of 11.

The horror run by Tirkey's side continued in the classification matches as they lost 2-3 to Argentina in a match for the 9-12 positions.

Shivendra Singh, who played well throughout the tournament, was the top scorer for India with four goals.