Australia edge past Netherlands

Australia got the better of The Netherlands 2-1 in a closely-contested match of the 12th men's hockey World Cup at the Major Dhyan Chand National stadium in Delhi on Thursday.

Australia led 2-0 through goals from Luke Doerner (27th minute) and Glenn Turner (55th minute) and never looked back.

The Dutch pulled one back in the 58th minute through a Taeke Taekema penalty stroke goal.

It swelled Taekema's goal tally to seven and made him the highest scorer in the tournament.

It was also his 20th goal in World Cups.

However, it wasn't enough to see his side through.

German captain Maximillian Muller on Thursday attributed consistency and big match mental strength as the reasons for their easy 4-1 victory over England in the World Cup semifinal.

"We have been consistent in this tournament. England were a good side but we also played consistently throughout the 70 minutes today. That made the difference," Muller said.

"I think we were better than England in all departments of the game. We played as a team and we were on top after we scored the two quick goals in the first half," he added.

Germany scored their third goal via a fine penalty corner variation and Muller said the players practised different modes of taking the the short corners.

"We were having different variations of penalty corner hits and one of them came good today. It was satisfying," he said.

Asked about the famous German big match temperament which saw them won the last two editions, Muller said, "People say we have the big match temperament and we have the mental strength. It is just like that. I am proud to be a German," he quipped