CHENNAI, Dec 11: Olympic gold-medallists Australia and hosts India fought back from the brink to record remarkable victories in the Champions Trophy field hockey tournament on Sunday. Australia, trailing 1-2 at half-time, pumped in three goals in a breathtaking second-half resurgence to defeat defending champions Spain 4-2.

India scored thrice in the last 10 minutes to down arch-rivals Pakistan 3-2 in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,500 at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium.

Germany added to the day’s drama by slamming two goals in the final seven minutes to hold the Netherlands to a 2-2 draw.

India and Pakistan conjured a thrilling finale with all five goals of the match coming in the last quarter after numerous wasted opportunities drew a blank on the scoreboard till the 54th minute.

Pakistan went 2-0 up in the space of three minutes through a penalty corner by Mohammad Imran and a field goal by Tariq Aziz.

India, who missed three penalty corners in the first four minutes of the match and two more before the interval, made amends with a flurry of goals towards the end.

Tushar Khandekar and Sandeep Singh scored twice in 70 seconds, before Sandeep grabbed the winner two minutes from the end with another penalty corner hit.

Australia were made to sweat by Spain, who led 2-1 at half-time.

The Kookaburras took the lead in the fifth minute when Jamie Dwyer’s stinging shot rebounded off Spanish goalkeeper Francisco Cortes’ pads and Travis Brookes pounced on the loose ball to score.

Santiago Freixa, the International Hockey Federation’s reigning young player of the year, drew level seven minutes later through a penalty corner and gave Spain the lead in the 26th minute with his second goal.

Australia went onto the attack after the resumption and made it 2-2 when Michael McCann was brought down inside the circle by Spanish defender Andreu Enrich and captain Brent Livermore converted a penalty stroke.

Luke Doerner flicked in a penalty corner in the 50th minute and McCann scored Australia’s last goal four minutes before the final whistle.

Spanish coach Maurits Hendriks said he was not upset by the result.

In the last match of the night, Roderick Weusthof scored once in each half to give the Netherlands a 2-0 lead with seven minutes remaining.

The Germans, without eight top stars who retired after the Athens Olympics, equalised through Christopher Zeller and Matthias Witthaus in a late surge.

Tuesday’s fixtures: (GMT) Netherlands v Spain (1100) Chennai India v Australia (1300) Chennai Pakistan v Germany (1500) Chennai.—Agencies