NBP lift hockey Gold Cup

KARACHI: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) inflicted an embarrassing 3-1 defeat on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to win the 5th Customs Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup Hockey Tournament that concluded at the Customs Sports Complex here on Friday.
Frequent efforts made by the bankers’ forwards rewarded them with a penalty corner in the 9th minute but the field umpire disallowed the goal after consultation with the third umpire.
In the 25th minute, NBP’s Tousiq Arshad took the ball from his area and carried it brilliantly inside the 25 where he passed the ball to Arslan Qadir in the D who made no mistake and hit the board.
In the 37th minute Tousiq, Rizwan Junior and Dilber Hassan launched an attack from the right where Sibtain Raza joined them in the D to score a beautiful goal.
Sibtain again showed his brilliance when he dodged two defenders to score the third goal, which was his second, in the 41st minute.
PIA tried hard to come back in the match and Shafqat’s solo effort earned a penalty corner but goalkeeper Mazhar bravely stopped it.
He also stopped Kashif Ali’s strong hit which was cleared by Tousiq on rebound.
Trailing by three goals, PIA forwards showed more aggression in the last quarter and managed to convert a penalty corner in the 54th minute through their captain Kashif Ali, but that was too little and too late.
They got six penalty corners in the match.
PHF president Akhtar Rasool handed over the trophy and the key of a car to the winning captain Tousiq Arshad of NBP.
Runners-up PIA received a cash prize of Rs500,000.
Arslan Qadir of NBP was declared the best scorer, PIA’s Kashif Ali the best player, and Amjad Ali the best goalkeeper. They received Rs50,000 each.