The Hague (The Netherlands), June 9 (PTI): India suffered a humiliating 0-4 loss against defending champions Australia in their final group league encounter of the FIH Men�s Hockey World Cup, here today.
Asserting their strength, Australia built up a four-goal lead in the initial 22 minutes, before the Indian managed to re-group themselves and put up a stronger defence thereby denying the fancied rivals, a chance of scoring any more goals.
Kieran Govers opened the scoring with a field goal in the 27th minute. It was followed by three penalty corner strikers � two by Chris Ciriello and one by Jeremy Hayward. Australia topped Group A with maximum 15 points from five successive victories. India finished their five pool matches with four points, gained from a victory over Malaysia and a draw with Spain.
India now await the result of the Spain-Malaysia result later today to know whether they finish fourth or fifth in the group. Spain have two points from four matches, while Malaysia have lost all their four games.
