New Delhi: Australia won the Hockey World Cup for the second term beating Germany 2-1 in a closely fought final at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium here Saturday.
Germany's dream of lifting their third consecutive World Cup title came down crashing with the loss as the Australians found themselves third time lucky after having lost the last two consecutive finals.
Australia also broke their 24-year jinx to win the Hockey World Cup after Luke Doerner slammed home a penalty-corner winner. Australia had then beaten hosts England 2-1 in the final at Willesden (London).
Saturday' win against Germany was also Australia's first in the World Cup in 16 years. Earlier in the day, the Netherlands beat England 4-3 for third place.
In the keenly contested final, Edward Ockenden gave Australia the lead in the sixth minute and Doerner doubled it from a penalty corner at the stroke of an hour. Moritz Furste (48th) scored the only German goal from a penalty corner.
Australia were desperate to win the title and they made their intentions clear right from the start as they took 13 shots on target as compared to Germany's five.
Eckenden, who didn't have an impressive World Cup, struck when it mattered the most as he netted from a goal mouth melee as the German defence was caught napping.
Germany paid a heavy price for not converting the numerous penalty corner chances that came their way.
Earlier in the day, the Dutch made an epic comeback to beat European champions 4-3 in a thrilling encounter. The Dutch were trailing 1-3, but they came back strongly and slammed in three goals in 19 minutes.
The Dutch opened the scoring through their dependable play maker Teun de Nooijer in the 22nd minute, giving the finishing touch to a pass from Robert van der Horst.
England, who largely dominated the first half, fought back with strikes from Alastair Brogdon (23rd minute) and two penalty-corner conversions from Ashley Jackson (30th, 34th).
The Netherlands hit back in the 48th minute with a penalty-corner conversion from Taeke Taekama, his eighth goal in the tournament. For the next few minutes, the Dutch gave a harrowing time to the England defence as they skilfully stepped up the attack.
Klaas Vermeulen (55th) equalised with an opportunistic goal from a goalmouth melee. And with three minutes to go, Roger Hofman sneaked one past goalkeeper James Fair for the winning goal to send the crowd into raptures.