World champions Australia beat Belgium to clinch men's Hockey World League title

Australia overcame Belgium to win the World Hockey League final ©Getty Images

World number one ranked Australia were crowned 2015 Hockey World League champions after securing a 2-1 victory over Belgium in the gold medal match in Raipur.

The two teams had met in their first match of the tournament, with Australia earning a narrow 1-0 victory on their way to finishing second in Group A, which had been topped by Britain with Belgium in third.

Both countries had grown into the competition by recording impressive victories in the knock-out phase but they began the final in cagey fashion, with neither side able to make a breakthrough in the opening quarter.

Australia, though, claimed the lead in the 16th minute despite the Belgian defence blocking three efforts on goal in a frantic period of play, with the ball eventually falling to Jeremy Hayward to hammer a powerful shot beyond Belgium’s goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch.

Matthew Dawson doubled their advantage, shortly after the half-time interval, by flicking a penalty corner into the net and the Australia team looked to have scored a third moments later, only to be denied by a miraculous goal line clearance by Emmanuel Stockbroekx.

His intervention kept Belgium’s faint hopes alive but they proved unable to break through the world champion’s defence until the final minute, when Simon Gougnard scored from a penalty corner but it proved only a consolation effort.

India's Rupinder Pal Singh scored the winning penalty in the host's third place playoff against The Netherlands ©Getty Images

"I am very happy with the team’s performance as we showed in the last three games against Germany, Netherlands and Belgium that we can win big matches”, said Dwyer, named player of the tournament.

“For me personally, I was quite happy to perform the way I did against the best teams in the world.

“It gives me believe that even at 36 that I can still play the game well.”

Despite their disappointment at seeing their team eliminated by Belgium in yesterday’s semi-final, the home crowd at the Raipur International Hockey Stadium were able to celebrate India winning the third place playoff following a dramatic shoot-out with The Netherlands.

The hosts fell 2-0 behind in the early stages with Mirco Pruijser and Niek van der Schoot finding the net for the 2014 winners.

A penalty corner by Rupinder Pal Singh, either side of a brace from Ramandeep Singh, saw the Indian team turn the match around as the match reached its final 10 minutes.

An equaliser from Mink Van der Weerden sparked a remarkable last six minutes, as a penalty stroke from Pal Singh and an effort from Akashdeep Singh gave India a 5-3 advantage.

Van der Weerden, however, had not finished yet as he scored twice in as many minutes to complete a quick-fire hat-trick and force a shoot-out.

With the score at 2-2 in the shoot-out, Manpreet Singh was fouled during his effort to allow Pal Singh to score a penalty stroke to earn his team victory.