Bhubaneswar: Last edition’s champions Australia secured a consolation bronze medal after mauling England 8-1 at the Men’s Hockey World Cup third-fourth place play-off match at the Kalinga Stadium here, Sunday.
Tom Craig (9th, 19th and 34th minutes) scored a hat-trick while Jeremy Hayward (57th and 60th) struck twice for Australia in the bronze medal play-off. Blake Govers (8th), Trent Mitton (32nd) and Tim Brand (34th) were the other goal getters for Australia.
World No.7 England’s lone goal in the lopsided match came from the stick of Barry Middleton in the 45th minute.
This was Australia’s fifth bronze medal in the history of the tournament. The last time the Kookaburras had to be satisfied with a third-place finish was way back in 1994 in front of their home crowd in Sydney.
After sitting back in the initial minutes, Govers scored his seventh goal of the tournament with a reverse hit after receiving a through ball.
A minute later, the Kookaburras doubled their lead when Craig scored from close range with a rebound from Brand’s pass. Australia made the scoreline 3-0 in their favour four minutes into the second quarter through another fine field goal by Craig.
Australia went into the half time break with a comfortable 3-0 lead.
Mitton extended Australia’s lead in the 32nd minute and before England could settle down from the setback, Australia pumped in two more goals within a minute to make the contest a completely one-sided affair.
First, Brand finished off a fine Mitton pass for the fifth goal and then Craig got the sixth one for Australia and completed his hat-trick with another field strike.
England scored the consolation goal just seconds before the end of third quarter with Middleton finishing off into an empty goal from a Phil Roper pass.
Australia scored their seventh goal in the 57th minute and secured back-to-back penalty corners in the final minute, the second of which was converted by Hayward to seal a convincing win.
