Australia on top as England lose

Kuldip Lal

Favourites Australia sweated to a 2-1 win over Pakistan on Monday to join England in the semi-finals from group B in the men's field hockey World Cup.

Veteran penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas put a rejuvenated Pakistan ahead in the 24th minute, before Desmond Abbott scored twice in the second half to clinch victory for the Kookaburras.

European champions England, who had won all four previous matches, crashed to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Beijing Olympic silver-medallists Spain in their last match.

Pau Quemada convered a penalty corner in the 35th minute and Eduard Tubau increased the margin six minutes before the end against an English team already assured of a semi-final berth. Both England and Australia ended the league on 12 points each, but the Kookaburras took top spot in the group by virtue of a superior goal difference of plus-17 against their rivals' plus-5.

Spain finished third in the group with nine points to ensure themselves a top-six finish in the tournament. Hosts India claimed the fourth spot after a thrilling 3-3 draw with South Africa, who finished fifth and relegated Pakistan to sixth place.

After Lloyd Norris-Jones had put South Africa ahead in the seventh minute, Sarvanjit Singh and Diwakar Ram struck in quick succession to give India a 2-1 lead at the interval.

South Africa, who had beaten Pakistan earlier in the league, made it 3-2 through Justin Reid-Ross and captain Austin Smith, before Shivendra Singh equalised for India four minutes from the end.

India and South Africa both ended with four points, but the hosts had a better goal difference of minus-4 and compared to the Africans' minus-15.

The two semi-final spots from group A will be decided after Tuesday's last round with four teams - the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea and New Zealand - still in the fray.

England captain Barry Middleton rued his team's first loss in the tournament.

"We let ourselves down today," he said. "We did not play at our enegry levels and it proved that if we dump our game we can be disappointing.

"We let our standards slip, but I hope it was only a one-off going into the semi-finals."

Spanish coach Dani Martin admitted the loss to Pakistan earlier in the league ruined the semi-final hopes of his team.

"That defeat hurt us," he said. "Otherwise we would be celebrating right now. I don't think we played to our potential in this tournament." Australian captain Jamie Dwyer said the match against Pakistan gave them an opportunity to try the reserves. "It was not a great game, but it is nice to finish at the top of the group," he said.

"But a semi-final is a different competition altogether. You can't afford to have a bad day. The opponents we face will be tough to beat, whoever they are." Abbas said Pakistan lacked consistency. "We play well one day, and very bad the next day," he said. "The team lacks co-ordination. There is a lot of hard work ahead for us." NEW DELHI, Tuesday AFP