Archrival Pakistan started its campaign with a 3-0 win over Scotland, New Zealand’s beat Trinidad & Tobago 7-1 and South Africa faced little trouble in defeating Canada 4-1.

In the women’s Pool A matches, Emily Hurtz scored a hat trick and guided defending champion Australia to a comprehensive 11-0 win over inexperienced Trinidad & Tobago. South Africa survived a late Scotland charge to win 2-1 and also stay unbeaten from two games.

Crista Cullen matched Hurtz’s feat as she helped England beat Wales 4-1 from Pool B. New Zealand notched its second successive victory by beating Malaysia 5-0 in the same group.

A crowd of around 7,000 home supporters at 19,118-seat MDC Stadium cheered wildly when Chikara scored the clincher with a clean strike from top of the circle.

India twice rallied through penalty corner strikes of Dhananjay Mahadik and Sandeep Singh to level 2-2 at half time.

Hafifihafiz Hanafi netted via a brilliant angular shot off a reverse stick in the 16th minute and unmarked Misron Azlan’s rasping drive flew past India goalkeeper Bharat Kumar in the 34th minute before Singh equalized off a short corner just before the break.

Malaysia should have added two goals in the second half but striker Faizal Saari twice fumbled when he closed in on goal after making superb solo runs into the Indian defense.

The Australian women, hot favorites to retain the gold medal, took 14 minutes to adjust to the heat before Casey Eastham scored off a penalty stroke. The scoring started in earnest. Hurtz and Shelly Liddelow scored field goals on either side of captain Madonna Blyth’s penalty corner as Australia went 4-0 ahead by half time.

Hurtz and Megan Rivers scoring two goals apiece in the second half, while Jessica Nicole, Jayde Taylor and Ashleigh Nelson also among the goal scorers.

“It was all about adjusting to heat in the first 10 minutes but once we adjusted, it became easy for us,” Hurtz said.

Pakistan strikers Shakeel Abbasi and Rehan Butt fine-tuned for tougher matches against host India and Australia with field goals in the first half while Mohammad Imran converted a short corner in the 43rd.

“Whenever a team starts with three points in any tournament, it builds the confidence,” Butt said.

For the second successive day, no more than 100 spectators attended matches at the for the morning matches.

“Maybe it’s because of heat in the morning that people are not coming to the stadium, but I am sure it will be packed house when we take on India on Oct. 10,” Butt said.

Pakistan finished last in the 12-team field hockey World Cup at the same venue earlier this year, but captain Zeeshan Ashraf hoped to be on the podium at the Commonwealth Games.

“I know we played badly at the World Cup, but we are reigning silver medalist in this tournament and we want to be on the victory stand again.” In an early women’s match, Cullen struck twice through powerful flicks off short corners in the first half and added another in the second session to give two-time silver medalist England a perfect start in the competition from Pool B.

Charlotte Craddock put England 4-0 ahead with a strike off an acute angle before Sarah Thomas pulled one back for Wales.

“There’s always a bit of rivalry with Wales and Scotland.

The games are a bit more built up, so it’s always nice to win them,” said Sally Walton.