Pit Rudofsky scored twice while Marcel Hilbert, Oliver Binder and Franz Lindengrun also got on the scoresheet as they claimed a shock 5-2 win over the South Koreans.

Austria, who arrived in Uttar Pradesh without any real hope of making the last eight, had drawn with Argentina in their opening game and sit top of their pool on four points.

"When we performed five weeks ago our quality wasn’t there, but our preparations and performances here in India have been fantastic”, said Austria’s Florian Streyrer.

“It’s unbelievable. 

"The fighting spirit is there, as everyone could see, and now we need to rest and recover before a tough match against Australia."

In the other match in the pool, Australia battled to a hard-fought 2-1 triumph over Argentina.

Just as the contest looked to be heading for a draw, Olympian Blake Govers scored a last-gasp penalty stroke to hand the Australian team a vital win.

Hosts India, who were strongly tipped for the title in the build-up to the tournament, recovered from conceding an early goal in a 5-3 success against England.

Jack Clee silenced the home crowd with the opener early on before goals from Parvinder Singh and Armaan Qureshi gave India a slender lead at the break.

They came out with renewed vigour in the second half and further strikes from Harmanpreet Singh, Simranjeet Singh and Varun Kumar but India on the brink of victory.

Will Calnan and Edward Horler found the net to make for a tense finale but the hosts held on to clinch their second win in Pool D.

South Africa kept their quarter-final chances alive as they overcame Canada 3-1 in the other Pool D encounter to take place today.

Germany, who are bidding for a third straight World Cup crown, are in action tomorrow as they go up against Japan in Pool C, while Spain take on New Zealand.

In Pool B, Malaysia clash with Egypt and Belgium face The Netherlands.