England's women's hockey team won bronze in Melbourne

Ipswich's Jo Ellis opened the scoring before Mel Clewlow marked her 150th cap with a deflected second and Sally Walton wrapped up the scoring.

Scotland conceded two second-half set-pieces as they lost 2-0 to top seeds China in their opening match.

A last-minute penalty corner denied Ireland victory as they were held to a 1-1 draw by the USA.

Cathy McKean had given the Irish a 41st-minute lead but Kelly Doton equalised with seconds remaining.

England and Scotland meet on Sunday and need to finish in the top five to reach the finals in Madrid in September.

Seven teams have already confirmed their participation in the tournament from 27 September to 8 October - Argentina, Australia, Germany, India, Netherlands, South Africa and hosts Spain.

Once Ellis put England ahead from close range in the 19th minute, they were always in control.

It was another blow for the Ukrainians who had to rush out and buy new sticks before the game. Theirs failed a pre-match test and six players had no spares with them.

Clewlow's penalty corner deflected in off a defender to double the lead before Walton deflected home a free-hit to secure the win.

Coach Danny Kerry said: "Ukraine played very deep and this made things awkward for us but despite the difficulties, we still scored three goals to give us a solid start to the tournament."

Scotland held out for an hour before Song Qing Ling broke the deadlock from a penalty corner and eight minutes later Tang Chun Ling made the result safe from another set-piece.