Holland drub Australia 6-2 to win Azlan Shah Cup

Kuala Lumpur, June 25 (UNI) Reducing the final to a lopsided affair, Holland drubbed Olympic Champions Australia 6-2 in to clinch their first Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey title here at the Bukit Jalil stadium today.

A shocked Australian defence had no answer to the fluency of the Dutch forward line who struck twice in the first half and then banged in another four in the second session.

For Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans, it was a second Azlan Shah final.

In 2003, he took the Pakistan team to the final but lost to Australia. It was sweet revenge for him to have beaten Australia as coach of the Dutch team.

Defending champions Australia came into the final quite confident of securing the title but were beaten by a superior team.

The scorers for Halland were Roderick Weustoph (7th, 47th, 66th), Taeke Taekema (23rd), Teun de Nooijer (42nd), and Ronald Brouwer (52nd).

For Australia, Matt Naylor (60th) and Grant Schubert (68th) scored.

Oltmans said it was not everyday one can beat the Aussie side by half a dozen goals.

''But we are still clear that our objective was not to win the tournament but to keep improving and look at the World Cup in September,'' he said.

''It is a bonus of sorts that we have won and quite convincingly.'' Oltmans added that Australia did miss quite a few chances in the second half and things could have been different if they had scored.

''But I am happy with the way my forward line created chances and we now look forward to the World Cup.'' A lot of credit should go to Teun de Nooijer who added a lot of sharpness in the Dutch frontline creating some superb chances in the Australian striking circle. Nooijer was voted the Man of the Final.

For Holland it was a triple delight at the Azlan Shah finals.

Apart from convincingly beating Australia, they also took the Man of the Tournament which went to Roderick Weustoph. The Dutch striker also bagged the award for highest goal scorer in the tournament with four goals.

Earlier in the bronze medal play-off, India rallied to edge past New Zealand 3-2 in the third place play off thus registering their first podium finish in six years in the tournament.

UNI XC DH VC1718