Australia, losing finalist in the last two World Cups in 2002 and 2006, topped the pool standings on goal difference after finishing level with England on 12 points from five matches.
Abbott scored in the 38th and 67th minutes to ensure Australia's victory. It finished with a goal difference of plus-17, while England's dropped to plus-5 after it lost its last pool match 2-0 to Spain.
England qualified for the World Cup semifinals for the first time in 24 years.
Pakistan opened the scoring Monday against Australia in the 24th minute on a penalty corner conversion by Sohail Abbas.
“We tried out reserve players, because an opportunity was there to test them before the semifinals,” said Australia captain Jamie Dwyer.
“It's nice to finish on top of the pool, and now the semifinal will be a different competition,” he said.
Australia and England will discover their semifinal opponents after the last round of matches in Pool A, where four teams - two-time defending champion Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea and New Zealand are all in the running for semifinal berths.
Spain finished third in Pool B with nine points.
Host India was held to a 3-3 draw by South Africa and both teams finished on four points in the pool, but India finished in fourth spot ahead of its opponent thanks to a better goal difference.
India's goals came through Sarwanjit Singh, Diwakar Ram and Shivendra Singh, while South Africa's scorers were Lloyd Norris-Jones, Justin Reid-Ross and Austin Smith.
Pakistan finished bottom of the pool with three points.
Spain's goals against England came through Pau Quemada's penalty corner conversion in the 35th minute and Eduard Tubau's open-play strike in the 64th minute.
“We were tactically and mentally better than England and scored first, which was an advantage,” said Spanish coach Dani Martin.
“We didn't play to our potential in this tournament. The defeat against Pakistan spoiled our chances,” he added.
Despite advancing to the semifinals, England captain Barry Middleton was disappointed with the loss to Spain.
“We let our standards slip,” Middleton said. “We let ourselves down and didn't play to our energy levels.” England coach Jason Lee said Spain was technically superior.
“Spain are a good side and today they were better in terms of technical play,” said Lee. “It would have been nice to win all matches, but we hope that it was one off.
We're disappointed, but are ready for any team in the semifinals.”
