Fiery France beat Australia, Amirul''s hat-trick earns Bangladesh draw against Korea

Chennai, Nov 30 (PTI) Last edition's runners-up France continued their impressive run at the FIH Men's Junior World Cup, beating Australia 8-3 to register their second consecutive win in Pool F here on Sunday.

France, who defeated Korea 11-1 in their tournament opener, took the lead in the ninth minute through Arthur Morcrette who converted their first penalty corner.

But the lead was short-lived as Australia drew level three minutes later through Matthew Hawthorne, who first beautifully controlled a scoop pass and then raced inside the circle beating a few defenders before slotting the ball into the net from top of the box.

Patrick Andrew then scored an opportunistic field goal in the 22nd minute before Ian Grobbellar converted a penalty corner six minutes later to hand Australia a 3-1 lead.

James Liddiard (30th) pulled one back for France just at the stroke of half-time from a field effort.

Three minutes after the change of ends, France drew parity through Tom Gaillard, who slapped the ball in after he was set up by Aristide Michaelis, who dribbled past three defenders from the right flank before passing the ball to Gaillard.

The French boys continued to impress with their fast-paced attacking hockey and took the lead in the 49th minute through Gabriel Piole, who found the net with a fierce reverse hit after Michaelis' shot was saved by Australia goalkeeper Magnus McCausland. France extended their lead in the 53rd minute through an unmarked Hugo Dolou, who pushed home from the far post after he was set by Arthur Plauche's brilliant solo run from the right flank.

Australia pulled out their goalkeeper with seven minutes remaining and France capitalised on the move scoring three more goals on an empty net.

Malo Martinache made the scoreline 6-3 with a reverse hit in the 58th minute and then a minute later Gaillard scored his second goal of the day.

Dolou too found the net for the second time in the match in the 60th minute as France completed an emphatic win.

Amirul's hat-trick powers Bangladesh =========================== In the penultimate match of the day, Bangladesh produced a spirited fightback to hold Korea 3-3 and keep their quarterfinal chances alive from Pool F.

Down 0-3, Bangladesh came back strongly after the change of ends and rode on star dragflicker Amirul Islam's second consecutive hat-trick of the tournament to salvage a point from the match.

However, it was Korea who raced to a 3-0 lead with goals from Minhyeok Lee (8th, 17th) and Seunghan Son (13th) before Amirul, who scored a hat-trick in Bangladesh's 3-5 loss to Australia, converted three short corners in the 36th, 46th and 56th minutes.

In fact, all the six goals of the match came from penalty corners.

Bangladesh will next play France in their last pool match here on Tuesday, while Korea will take on Australia.

Japan beat China, Argentina hold NZ ========================== In Pool C matches, Japan eked out a narrow 3-2 win over China to register their first win in the tournament, while toppers Argentina played out a 3-3 draw against second-placed New Zealand.

Shun Hara (19th), Shu Ono (20th) and Kazuki Terasaka (50th) were the goal getters for Japan, while China's goals were scored by Dongjun Ning (11th) and Jialing Zhang (57th).

Jonty Elmes (4th, 32nd and 39th) scored from a penalty corner and converted two penalty corners to register a hat-trick for New Zealand, while Mateo Torrigiani (2nd), Bruno Correa (11th, 40th) found the net for Argentina as both the teams shared the spoils.

New Zealand will take on Japan here on Monday, while Argentina will be up against China. PTI SSC SSC UNG