The Hague: India suffered a humiliating 0-4 loss against defending champions Australia in their final group league encounter of the men's hockey World Cup here on Monday.
Chris Ciriello (16th and 22nd) struck a brace while Kieran Govers (3rd) and Jeremy Hayward (20th) struck a goal apiece.
Asserting their strength, Australia built up a four-goal lead in the initial 22 minutes, before the Indian managed to re-group themselves and put up a stronger defence thereby denying the fancied rivals, a chance of scoring any more goals.
Kieran Govers opened the scoring with a field goal in the 27th minute. It was followed by three penalty corner strikers - two by Chris Ciriello and one by Jeremy Hayward. Australia topped Group A with maximum 15 points from five successive victories.
The Aussies players are on course to have another crack at the title as a present to their coach Ric Charlesworth, for whom this will be the last World Cup as he retires later this year.
India finished their five pool matches with four points, gained from a victory over Malaysia and a draw with Spain.
India now await the result of the Spain-Malaysia result later today to know whether they finish fourth or fifth in the group. Spain have two points from four matches, while Malaysia have lost all their four games.
A draw or a Malaysian victory will help India finish in the fourth spot in the group, and then play-off for the seventh and eighth spots.
A Spanish victory will relegate India to the fifth spot in the pool, making them play for the ninth and 10th positions.
Australia on Monday opened the game by pressuring the Indian defence into conceding an early goal.
Two strikers pressured defender VR Raghunath for space on top of the Indian circle, snatched the ball from him to raid the Indian goal in the third minute.
Simon Orchard then dribbled in the circle and sent a cross to Govers to shoot into the goal with the custodian already beaten by the cross.
India first came up to the rival circle in the 10th minute, but move wasted as Chinglensana Singh as his reverse push was misdirected and went out.
Australia then converted three successive penalty corners to take a 4-0 lead at half-time. The penalty corner conversions began with Ciriello placing his drag flick on the first penalty corner to the left of goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
India then twice moved up to the rival circle, but misdirected passes continued to waste the hard work.
At the other end, the second Australian penalty corner was converted by Hayward in the 20th minute after Ciriello's initial shot had struck onrushing defender Raghunath.
Ciriello was on target two minutes later with a low flick that went through the Indian defenses.
India coach Terry Walsh accepted that India were confronted by self-doubt in the face of intense pressure exerted by Australia.
"Australia started quickly and they always do that. It shattered out confidence and the Indian team faced some self-doubt," said Walsh, a former Australian Olympian who took over as India coach six months ago.
Walsh said there was an element of "careless play" in the manner India conceded the first goal, when the ball was snatched from an Indian defenders on top of the circle and Kieran Govers opened the scoring with a field goal.
"We paid the penalty for being careless at the start," said Walsh.
"We were outplayed in the first half, but were more competitive in the second half. We even managed to create a few chances and should have made use of them."
Indian captain Sardar Singh said the team was aware the Australians would come hard from the start.
"We knew Australia would be pressing, and we made some silly mistakes," he said.
Sardar said India were a young side and several players were playing in their first World Cup.
Walsh said the young side had some way to go.
"These boys are not battle hardened. Most are playing their first major tournament," the coach said.
(With PTI inputs)
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