The South African women’s indoor hockey team has suffered its first defeat at the Indoor Hockey World Cup in Croatia, losing to the third ranked team in the world, Austria.

The Proteas who played to a four-all draw with Thailand on day one, had a much tougher assignment on day two. And they were just no match for Austria who scored a goal almost every three minutes to go into the first break with a three-nil lead.

Daria Buchta scored two of those goals in the first quarter. South Africa, ranked seventh in the world, gave a better account of themselves in the second quarter, but trailed five-nil at halftime.

Austria added five more goals in the last two quarters to record a comprehensive 10-nil victory. Katharina Bauer was one of the stars for Austria and completed her hat-trick early in the fourth quarter.

Austria top Pool B thanks to a superior goal difference over Poland, while Thailand and South Africa remain winless and are third and fourth in the Pool respectively.