Azlan Shah Hockey Cup: Australia beat Pakistan 4-0

IPOH (Web Desk) - Pakistan were beaten 4-0 by Australia in their 2016 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup match at Malaysia’s city of Ipoh on Sunday.

Australia stayed on top of the round-robin league standings with nine points from three successive victories.

Defending champions New Zealand, who on Sunday defeated Japan 4-1, are in the second spot with eight points from four outings.

Pakistan put up a stiff resistance despite Australia taking the initial lead through a 24th-minute penalty corner conversion by Blake Govers before two goals in successive minutes featuring Dwyer took the fight out of them.

Dwyer set up the second Australian goal when he sent a reverse back-pass to Thomas Craig, who had worked up his way on the left side and made no mistake in shooting past goalkeeper Imran Butt in the 41st minute.

A minute later, Dwyer applied the finishing touch to a long through ball from Chris Ciriello as the deflection gave the custodian no chance.

Aran Zalewski rounded off the Australian scoring in the 52nd minute as he hustled past one defender on top of the circle and beat another with his low shot into the boards.

Pakistan, whose next fixture is against arch-rivals India on Tuesday, now have three points from three outings.