Defending champion Australia, rode on a fantastic hat trick by ace striker Jamie Dwyer, routed Pakistan 6-1 to hand over the green shirts their third successive defeat in the Champions Trophy hockey tournament to rekindle their chances for retaining the title here at North Harbour hockey stadium.
The second round of the 8-nation tournament commences on December after a day's rest tomorrow, Thursday for which Australia and Spain have qualified from Pool A and from Pool B New Zealand and Holland have also joined them. Spain scored the so far biggest margin 8-1 win over England, New Zealand caused a scare for mighty Holland snatching a 3-3 draw and South Korea also pulled a surprise performance against Germany by managing a 3-3 draw.
Pakistan will now play Korea in their first qualification match for 7th and 8th place and in case of a victory they will be trying their luck for 5th and 6th place. Whereas Germany will take on England in another classification match. Pakistan beaten by England and Spain in their earlier matches ,proved a tamed opposition in front of world number and favourites Australia which demonstrated a far superior show to outshine their opponents in all departments of the game, taking sweet revenge of their last month's defeat in the final of a tri nation tournament in Perth.
Australians wrapped up the first half with 2-0 lead and put immense pressure on Pakistan to dump them with the addition of four more goals,with Jamie becoming star performer with a rear feat of a hat getting a trick. Pakistani goalkeeper Salman Akbar was in a dismal form under the bar. He had a shattered confidence and frozen reflexes conceding a number of goals with Australians on rampage. Salman put a wrong foot to let the ball in when Jamie attempted from right side in the 22nd minute and four minutes before the close of the half captain Edwad Ockenden seized a rebound from Salman to steer the ball into post.
The second half proved a complete disaster for Pakistan which suffered Australian wrath in a more bitter way conceding four goals of the session in just 15 minutes in an action packed drama. Conceding goals in quick successions left the Pakistani side in complete shock and they had nothing in their mind but to escape further punishment as Australians netted their sixth goal in the 53rd minute as Salman once against anticipated poor judgement when Mark Peterson challenged him from the mid of the circle and found enough time and space to beat him.
With Pakistani hopes dying down for hunting a field goal through below average play, Mohammad Tausig converted a penalty corner goal in the 63rd minute helping his side to end the match with some relief. Matches for Thursday: (all local timings) Pakistan vs Korea at 1205 hrs, England vs Germany at 1405 hrs, Holland vs Australia at 1605, Spain vs New Zealand at 1805.