PIA win second consecutive national title

KARACHI: Outstanding performance by Olympian Shafqat Rasool steered defending champions Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to their second consecutive national hockey crown, at the HCP Stadium here on Sunday.

PIA beat WAPDA in the sudden death stage of the penalty shootout 7-6.

Shafqat was outstanding throughout the final. He demonstrated his brilliance not only in leading attacks but he also tackled and intercepted successfully.

One of the most exciting finals of the national hockey history ended in a 2-2 draw in the stipulated time.

Both team scored three goals in the penalty shootout and in the sudden death stage Shafqat did not make any error but WAPDA’s Irfan failed to score.

Overall, this is PIA’s 29th national championship victory.

Amir Shehzad defended beautifully clearing the ball from his team’s circle and also led attacks. He initiated an attack in the 31st minute along with Waqas Akbar and Mohammed Zubair, which enabled Shafqat to score the first goal. 

Two minutes later, WAPDA’s Mohammed Jaffar leveled the score. In the 44th minute PIA earned a penalty corner which was converted by Ehsanullah.

A fairly large crowd enjoyed the beautiful dribbling, dodging and tackling demonstrated by both the teams.

WAPDA exerted pressure with a series of attacks and the ball remained in the half of the PIA most of the time in the fourth quarter.

Jaffar, Shehbaz and Waseem Ahmed made a move in the 57th minute, enabling Umar Bhutta to net a beautiful goal, which received standing ovation from the spectators.

WAPDA’s goalkeeper Imran was marvelous as he stopped as many as three penalty corners and a couple of direct hits.

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) got the third position when they beat Army 5-3 in penalty shootout. It was sheer luck of the bankers who were losing 1-0 till the 59th minute of the match but managed to convert a penalty corner just seconds before the final whistle to level the score 1-1.

Army had scored in the 24th minute on a penalty stroke.

The bankers missed at least two chances to level the score. Shan Irshad’s reckless hit on Azfar Yaqoob’s pass in the circle went outside.

Then Dilber Hassan also struck a hasty hit on Tousiq Arshad’s pass in the circle which went above the bar.

In the penalty shootout, Ammad Shakeel, Shan Irshad, Dilber Hassan and Bilal Qadir scored for NBP. For Army Kashif Ali and Noman Khan managed to beat the goalkeeper.

Federal minister for state and frontier regions Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch gave the winners’ trophy to PIA captain Mohammed Irfan.

PIA were also given a cash prize of Rs300,000. WAPDA were awarded a cash prize of Rs200,000. The third position holders NBP got Rs100,000.