Title favourites and defending champions Australia hammered England by 3-0 in their group encounter of the Hockey World Cup 2018 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar to take a giant step towards securing a direct qualification for the quarterfinals of the tournament.

England, on the other hand, are in danger of going into the tricky cross-over to ensure a quarterfinal berth.

The scoreline though only gave out half the picture. England were in the game right till the end of the third quarter with both teams yet to get on make inroads. Australia’s  Jake Whetton broke the deadlock in the 47th minute and from then on it was Australia.

The defending champions scored three goals in the final quarter. The next two goals came from Blake Glovers (50’) and Corey Weyer’s sticks (56’).

Australia will take on China on Friday while England will face Ireland later in the evening.