Indian spikers caused the biggest upset on the opening day of the 12th Asian men's volleyball championship defeating holders South Korea in a thrilling encounter.

India, who lost the first game, rallied strongly to register a memorable 23-25, 25-22, 20-25, 25-22, 17-15 victory in the match, played at the north Chinese city Tianjin on Friday.

Attributing the win to team-work, India's Bulgarian head coach Hristo Iliev said the victory highlighted the potential of his boys.

"It's not a surprise for me. South Korea played very well in defence, but our players fought together till the end for the victory," Iliev was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency on Saturday.

"I think it's the best match of the day and the two teams showed the high level of Asian volleyball," he added.

A disappointed head coach of South Korea, Cha Joo-Hyun, skipped the customary post-match press conference.

After splitting the first two sets of the Group B match, South Korea won six of the last seven points to take the third set 25-20.

India trailed 3-6 early in the fourth set but surged back with a 13-7 run for a 16-13 advantage. South Korea stayed within 23-22 but could not hold on.

India's Joseph Jobi smashed home a ball to make it 24-22 before the 2.09-meter Y Subba Rao teamed up with Mohammed Shijas for a blocking point and the set winner.

In the tie-breaker, the Indians withstood two match-points to tie it at 15-15.

South Korean Suk Jin-Wook smashed a ball out to give India their first match point and India converted on it with G Pradeep's storming kill.

Earlier, China overcame a slow start to drub Kazakhstan 3-0 in preliminary group A match. Tang Miao and Shen Qiong led the Chinese with 11 kills each.

China came out a little bit nervous in front of some 8,000 enthusiastic home fans. The third placers in the last Asian championship in 2001 made couples of serving mistakes in the first set and could not pull away.

In Friday's other actions, Japan whitewashed New Zealand 3-0, Iran demolished Qatar 3-0.

Top two finishers from the tournament, which runs through September 12, will qualify for the World Cup in November in Japan.