Germany flatten erring India

The German defence looked shaky, but was lucky on the day as the Indian forwards did not show the necessary innovation to convert the chances into goals. But India8217;s tale of misery revolved around some shoddy goalkeeping by Jude Menezes, who was replaced in the 28th minute by Jagadish Ponnappa. But, by then the Germans were up 3-0, and, in the final analysis, it hardly altered the course of the game.

Menezes let in two silly goals and India8217;s problems were compounded when defender Dilip Tirkey made a hash of a simple stop. He conceded the ball to Oliver Domke who raced down the middle, side-stepped Ponnappa and pushed home from close for the fourth German goal in the 31stminute.

Domke had struck the second in the 12th when he reverse hit past a static Menezes after Philipp Crone had taken a free-hit quickly and relayed to the forward. The success followed a penalty stroke conversion by Christoph Bechmann in the third minute as Klaus Michler8217;s goalbound shot had struck Lazarus Barla on the foot.

Menezes8217; nightmare continued as he cleared a Michael Waldhauser try straight to Bjorn Michel who let it rip for the third German goal in the 19th minute.The Germans, pushing all their 11 players in the defence, could not stop Sabu Varkey8217;s deflection to the net off a long hit by Barla, 19 minutes into the second-half.

KOREA UPSET: Meanwhile, New Zealand, the 1976 Olympic champions, brought off the tournament8217;s first big surprise when they pulled off a 3-1 win against Korea whose fortunes seem to be on the slide. The Kiwis scored their goals through Bevan Hari 9th and 46th and Darren Smith 40th, while the Korean consoliation goal was struck by Woon Kon Yeo64th.

Aussies impress: Australia virtually opened the floodgates against Poland and pumped in eight goals without reply to begin their Pool B campaign on an impressive note.

After Mathew John Smith scrambled home a rebound off the goalkeeper in the seventh minute, there was no stopping the Aussies who went on to add seven more goals through Jay Stacy 35th and 66th, Baeden Choppy 29th and 68h, Michael Brennan 22nd, Paul Lewis 54th and Stephen Davies 59th.

Easy for Pakistan: At the Frockey Stadium, defending champions Pakistan too were off to a brilliant start in Pool B with a fluent 7-2 win over a defensive Malaysia.

First-half goals by Rahim Khan 8th, Shahbaz Jr 16th, Shahbaz Sr 27th and Sohail Abbas 31st put the Pakistanis in good heart. They completed the rout on resumption as Tahir Zaman 45th, Kamran Ashraf 54th and Bashir Atif 62nd struck. In between, Malaysia managed to squeeze in a couple of penalty corner goals through Nor Saiful 57th and64th.

Friday8217;s fixtures IST: Men: New Zealand vs Germany 9.05 p.m., Canada vs Korea 10.05 p.m. and India vs The Netherlands 11.35 p.m.. Women: Germany vs South Africa 4.05 p.m., USA vs Scotland 5.05 p.m., Australia vs China 6.35 p.m..