Australia beat Japan 2-1 in women’s Hockey World Cup

ROSARIO (Argentina): Australia were made to work hard for a 2-1 victory over Japan in their opening Pool A match at the women’s World Cup on Monday.

Germany also had their work cut out to beat New Zealand 2-0 but Olympic and world champions Netherlands swept past India 7-1 on the second day of the tournament in Rosario.

A penalty corner after 14 minutes led to Cobie McGurk’s opening goal for twice world champions Australia but possession kept changing hands in a tight match.

Captain Madonna Blyth put the Australians two up when she scored from open play with eight minutes remaining, but Japan bounced back within a minute with a goal by Kaori Chiba to keep the tension to the end.

Maartje Paumen scored the second hat-trick of the tournament in the second half against India after Argentina’s Luciana Aymar had hit three in her team’s 5-2 win over South Africa in Pool B on Sunday.

The Dutch quickly went ahead with Marilyn Agliotti’s volley but India hit back in the 24th minute through Rani Rampal. Parity was short-lived, though, as goals from Ellen Hoog and Kim Lammers gave Netherlands a 3-1 lead at halftime.

In the second half, Paumen scored from two penalty corners either side of a penalty stroke and Lammers hit her second from the top of the circle.

Germany took a quarter of an hour to break down New Zealand’s resistance with a fine goal by Celine Wilde who tipped the ball in off the right post from open play.

Two minutes later Tina Bachmann increased the Germans’ lead from a penalty corner but that was the only one out of eight they converted.

New Zealand exerted increasing pressure during a scoreless second half in which Anita Punt came closest when her shot hit the post in the 52nd minute with no-one near enough to take the rebound.