Harpal Singh Bedi / Bhubaneshwar
Defending Champion Australia brought high flying China down to earth with a big thud pummelling the debutante 11-0 to top the pool B with all win record in the 14th Hockey World Cup Hockey at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar on Friday.
Though this was the biggest win this edition of the tournament, the Australians missed by a goal to equalize their record of 12-0 win against South Africa in 2010 Hockey World Cup at Delhi
Australia, which was the first team to enter the quarterfinals in this tournament not only gave a hockey lesson to the Chinese but also taught them not to expect any compassion or mercy at this level of competition.
A brilliant team effort led @Kookaburras to score a galore of goals against China as they finish their pool stage remaining at the top. Here are the best moments from the match.#AUSvCHN #IndiaKaGame #HWC2018 #DilHockey pic.twitter.com/06hxgb40Kp
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) December 7, 2018
In a hopelessly one side encounter, the goal scorers for the winners who led 6-0 at half time were Blake Govers, ( 10th,19th,34th), Tim Brand (33rd, 55th) Aran Zalewski (15th) Tom Craig (16th) Jeremy Hayward (22nd) Jake Whetton (29th) Dylan Wotherspoon (38th) andFlynn Ogilvie (49th)
This was the second encounter between two dise, in the earlier contest –in the Round Robin match of the 2014 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup World Champion had beaten China 7-0.
The Champion’s also created a record of chalking out 16 successive wins in the World Cup (6 in 2010,7 in 2014). before this win they were at par with Pakistan
. This win also proved that every match is new game and previous performances means nothing, Australia struggled against Ireland , and England while Chinese made life miserable for England and Ireland.
Chinese were expected to put up good fight but they just caved in the first five minute after which the Aussies, looking for their fourth title, just gave them a thrashing which will take long time for them to forget.
The losers neither hand the technique nor the agility to stop the marauding Australian strikers. They also had no plan to block the movements or foil the attacks. However for the records China managed two penalty corners but could not make use of them
Once the Australians got the lead in the 10th minute through Blake Govers’s penalty corner conversion, the goal fest started . % minutes later the leas went up with Aran Zalewaski scoring off a rebound after the goal keeper blocked Jeremy Haywrd’s shot.
The second quarter saw Australia firing four more goals to make it 6-0 and they added five more in the second session to complete the rout. Blake Govers (3) was their highest goal getter. The defending champions ended the league phase scoring 16 goals and conceding only one in three matches.