England reach World Cup semis after 24 years

New Delhi: England reached the semifinals at the field hockey World Cup for the first time in 24 years by eliminating host India 3-2 on Saturday.

England's fourth successive victory in as many games in Pool B gave it the maximum 12 points, three more than Australia, which beat third-placed Spain 2-0.

India was left out of semifinals contention for a ninth consecutive World Cup since it won in 1975, while four-time winner Pakistan was also out of the running after giving South Africa its first win, 4-3.

England's only previous semifinals appearance was in 1986, when it lost the final to Australia.

James Tindall (16th minute), Ashley Jackson (43rd) and Nick Catlin (47th) shot the European champion ahead 3-0 before the lead was cut to one by Gurwinder Singh (54th) and Rajpal Singh (57th).

"We came here to reach the semifinals," England coach Jason Lee said.

"One of our three goals have been achieved. We now hope to reach the final, and the next goal will be to win the World Cup. This is a sort of revival of English hockey. A big step was beating Germany in the European Cup final."

Australia won its third straight match at Spain's expense, and can qualify for the last four with a win or draw against Pakistan. Australia hasn't missed the semis since 1978.

"We're close to the semifinals, but still not guaranteed a place," said Australia coach Ric Charlesworth, who was captain of the only Kookaburras to win the World Cup in 1986.

Penalty corner

Luke Doerner's penalty corner conversion in the 20th minute gave Australia the lead and tied Doerner with Taeke Taekema of the Netherlands as leading goalscorer, with six each.

Glenn Turner then deflected in a square-pass from Robert Hammond in the 60th to dash Spain's hopes of a comeback.

"Scoring 12 goals against South Africa in our last match has given us a big advantage on goal difference," said Charlesworth, but he was critical of the umpiring.

"I'm very angry with the umpiring," he said.