BHUBANESWAR: Ruthless England destroyed Pakistan 8-2, completing their biggest ever Champions Trophy win over the Green-shirts at the Kalinga Stadium on Sunday.

England came into the match off the back of a 3-1 win over the world’s number one side Australia on Saturday and they continued that form with a dominant performance to hand beleaguered Pakistan their second consecutive defeat at the eight-nation tournament.

Having lost 2-1 to Belgium in their pool ‘A’ opener on Saturday, Pakistan coach Shahnaz Sheikh said the better fitness and speed of European teams were the main causes of his team’s two back-to-back defeats.

“We Asians just can’t match the power of the Europeans,” the former international said. “This tournament will be a good learning experience for my boys.”

Former champions Pakistan, who did not qualify for the World Cup, failed to earn a direct entry to the 2016 Olympics after losing to India in the Asian Games final in October and Sunday’s thrashing was a painful reminder of how far they have fallen.

Mark Gleghorne got the ball rolling, getting a touch on Alastair Brogdon’s cross, before Nick Catlin doubled England’s lead with a powerful strike.

David Condon made it three as he connected with Tim Whiteman’s cross before captain Barry Middleton and Ashley Jackson made the game safe for England before the break.

Sam Ward scored his third goal of the weekend to make it six before Brogdon grabbed a second to inflate England’s lead to 7-0 by the 48th minute.

Mohammad Arslan Qadir got one back for Pakistan three minutes from the end before Chris Griffiths scored England’s eighth. Mohammad Irfan netted a penalty corner on the final hooter to score a consolation for hapless Pakistan.

“We’re obviously disappointed with the result as nothing went right for us,” Pakistan captain Mohammad Imran said. “We saw a lot of flaws in our game but hope to work on them in our next match against Australia.”

World champions Australia remained winless at the tournament after the Kookaburras gave up a three-goal lead to draw 4-4 with Belgium in the other pool ‘A’ match on Sunday.

Tom Boon slammed in a last-gasp penalty corner to help Belgium force a dramatic draw. Belgium made a sensational comeback from 3-0 down and were trailing 3-4 when they appealed for a referral and were awarded the penalty-corner as captain John-John Dohmen was pulled from behind by an Australian defender.

Five-time defending champions and 13-time overall winners Australia then suffered a setback as Jeremy Hayward rushed out too early and was barred from the crucial defence and Boon recovered a miscued drag-flick to smash in the equaliser.

Australia had powered into a 3-0 lead by the 21st minute with goals from penalty-corner specialist Chris Ciriello, captain Eddie Ockenden and Jacob Whetton.

But Belgium made it 3-2 by half-time through Sebastian Docker and Florent van Aubel.

Flynn Ogilvie widened the gap for Australia once again but Dohmen made it 4-3 in the 38th minute before the match hit a barren spell leading up to the referral that produced the equaliser.

In pool ‘B’ action on Sunday, the Netherlands produced a performance of speed and precision to outdo Germany 4-1 and grab a second successive win.

In the late match on Sunday, hosts India suffered their second straight defeat when they lost 4-2 to Argentina, who bounced back from an opening day defeat to the Dutch. India lost 1-0 to Germany on Saturday.

The preliminary group stage determines the line-up for the knock-out rounds that will be contested by all eight sides.

Published in Dawn December 8th , 2014