CHENNAI (India), Dec 13: Australia and the Netherlands stayed on course for the Champions Trophy field hockey final with contrasting wins Tuesday while Pakistan and Germany played out a thrilling 4-4 draw.

Olympic gold-medallists Australia pulverised hosts India 4-1 to record their third consecutive win in the six-nation round-robin league.

The Dutch fended off a late challenge from defending champions Spain to win 3-2 and take second place on the table with seven points, two behind Australia.

Spain and India were next in line with three points each and needed a dramatic turnaround in the last two rounds to deny the Aussies and the Dutch a place in Sunday’s final.

Pakistan, languishing at the bottom of the table, were fortunate to share points with Germany as captain Mohammad Saqlain converted a penalty stroke two minutes from the final whistle.

It was Pakistan’s first point in the tournament while a young German side, without eight retired Olympic stars, are in fifth position with two points.

The Kookaburras scored four goals in the first 20 minutes against India, including Nathan Eglington’s first strike in the 58th second of the match.

Dean Butler, Travis Brooks and Eglington again scored for the Australians, while Tushar Khandekar pulled one back for India just before half-time.

India’s reserve goalkeeper Bharat Chetri, who replaced a rattled Adrian D’Souza after the four-goal blitz, prevented Australia from increasing the margin in the second half.

“I am very satisfied with the result,” said Australian coach Barry Dancer. “We put the Indians under pressure from the start. This tournament is going just the way we wanted.”

Earlier, the Dutch appeared headed for an easy victory against Spain when two goals from Matthijs Brouwer and one from Karel Klaver put them 3-0 ahead with 13 minutes left in the game.

Spain, however, scored twice in a five-minute burst, but missed a penalty corner in the final minute to concede three points to the Dutch.

The close win helped the Netherlands avenge two defeats at the hands of Spain in the finals of the Champions Trophy last December and the European championships in September.

Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans said revenge had not been on his mind.

“It is always good to beat Spain, but this win was important from the point of view of the tournament,” he said.

“Gaining three points here puts us in a good position to aim for the final.”

Spanish coach Maurits Hendriks — who guided the Dutch to the Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000 — said missed opportunities had cost his team dearly.

“We were all over them and even had five penalty corners against their two but somehow did not score,” he said.

“We did very well to recover in the end but maybe it was too late by then.”

The Pakistan-Germany match produced five goals in the first-half which ended with Rehan Butt giving the Pakistanis a 3-2 lead.

Germany scored twice to make it 4-3 before Saqlain’s late penalty stroke allowed Pakistan to share points.—AFP