Wapda, Army advance in National Hockey Championship

KARACHI: Wapda and Army had easy sailing on the third day of the 65th Air Marshal Nur Khan National Hockey Championship here at the Abdul Sattar EDHI Hockey stadium

In the first game a strong Wapda thrashed Punjab 5-0. The winners opened the scoring in the 3rd minute when Ashar Tariq scored via a penalty corner and netted his second goal in the 47th minute. Punjab despite being a weak region showed resistance on occasions.

Wapda showed the difference of experience and capitalised in the second half scoring 3 goals of which 2 were field goals.

The second match was clinched by Army by a fair margin of 7-2 against KP. KP also played up to their level against a strong Army team. Army opened the scoring in 2nd minute via field goal scored by Awais Zahid and then Arsalan Roy netted in the 5th minute. He then completed first hat-trick of the day as he tore apart the KP’s defence. KP then scored through Saeed in the 2nd quarter to bring the scoring to 3-1. KP converted through a penalty corner in the 3rd quarter.

In the third match between SSGC and PAF as a tight contest was expected but it turned out to be a one-sided affair. Though PAF opened the account and took the lead first in the first quarter through forward Afraz. SSGC quickly equalised through Mubashir Ali. Then he netted 4 more goals in the for the second hat-trick of the day. SSGC finally won 7-1.

The fourth match between Navy and Wapda (Whites) brought the ongoing National Championship to life as the match resulted in a 2-2 draw. Navy’s Muhammad Sabir opened the scoring by netting a goal through a penalty corner in the 2nd minute. First quarter ended with Navy having a 1-0 lead. Both teams fought for quite a time as Rana Waheed equalised in the 28th minute.Navy once again took the lead as Akbar Ali netted the goal in the 33rd minute. However a tense last quarter saw the last gasp goal in the 59th minute when M. Iqbal scored the crucial equalier.

The last game of the day was also a hard-fought match as both Railways and Port Qasim displayed fine game. Railways played well in the first quarter as Farhan Tariq scored in the 11th minute. Port Qasim raised their game in the 2nd quarter as Haris dragged the ball into the net from left flank. The first half ended 1-1 and Railways who displayed a disciplined game took a deserving lead and Rizwan Ali scored in the 20th minute. But Port Qasim made a comeback in the last 10 minutes. The match ultimately ended in a 2-2 draw.