Bhubaneswar: A brilliant performance saw Australia thrash China 11-0 in a Pool B match of the hockey World Cup on Friday.
Blake Govers scored a hat-trick (10th minute, 19th and 34th), Tim Brand (33rd, 55th) scored a brace, while goals from Flynn Ogilvie (49th), Jake Whetton (29th), Aran Zalewski (15th), Tom Craig (16th), Dylan Wotherspoon (38th) and Jeremy Hayward (22nd) helped Australia get their second highest win.
Australia fell short of their own World Cup record of a 12-0 win against South Africa which they set in 2010.
Australia is now sitting at the top of the group with nine points.
Right from the start, the Australians were on the mark and continued to press their opponent’s defence regularly which resulted in their massive win.
Australia got their first PC in the ninth minute, Blake Govers opened the floodgates for the Kookaburras with a powerful dragflick into the left corner of the post.
Just before the end of the first quarter, Australia was yet again awarded with another PC, Jeremy Hayward’s dragflick was well saved by Chinese goalkeeper Wang Caiyu, but the rebound was received by Dylan Witherspoon and pushed it to skipper Aran Zalewski who doubled the lead in the 15th minute.
In the second quarter, the Australians looked more furious by nailing four more goals to ensure their undisputed supremacy in their last league round match.
Tom Craig joined the goal shower by scoring a goal from a close range in the 16 minute.
Australia got a PC in the 19th minute and star forward Blake Govers scored his second goal of the match and fourth of the World Cup. It was an uphill task for China to stop the goal flow as Australia nailed three more goals in the third quarter.
The unstoppable Australia scored two goals in the final quarter to seal the match 11-0 in their favour.
Flynn Ogilvie was the eighth member of the winning team to join the party by scoring a goal in the 49th minute, while Tim Brand netted his second individual goal in the 55th minute of the match.
Meanwhile, a last minute goal by Mark Gleghorne guided England to cross over matches by defeating Ireland 4-2 in the Pool B league round match at the Kalinga Stadium on Friday.
With one win and a draw England gathered four points to remain in the second place of the Pool, while despite the humiliating defeat from Australia debutants China finished third in the Pool with two points to play the crossover matches. (Agencies)
