BIRMINGHAM: England women’s hockey team produced a stunning outcome in their gold medal bout with the favourites Australia and claimed their first-ever gold in the Commonwealth Games.

England, who had faced Australia thrice in the Commonwealth Games final since 1998 and have lost all three of them, flipped the history as the home side handed a scintillating 2-1 defeat to the hot favourites Australia.

The English side had won a medal at every Commonwealth Games since hockey was added to the programme in 1998 – but never gold. On Sunday, however, the home side finally gets their hands on their maiden gold in the Games.

In a predictably tensed and edgy encounter between the two sides, despite a late Hockeyroos consolidation, goals from Holly Hunter and Tess Howard were sufficient to give England their first gold medal.

The women’s hockey team from India, on the other hand, thrashed New Zealand 2-1 in the penalty shootouts before the game ended evenly for both teams at 1-1.

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