Multan, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Sargodha emerge victorious

LAHORE: Multan, Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Sargodha emerged victorious in the four matches played on the third day of First Quaid-e-Azam Inter-Division Hockey Championship at National Hockey Stadium on Wednesday.

Multan began the third day’s proceedings with an overwhelming 4-1 victory against Rawalpindi.

Usman Iftikhar of Multan struck the first goal in the 3rd minute of the match. Multan continued to dominate, scoring three more goals, through M Musa in 8th, M Arsal in 21st and Kashif Sadiq in 26th minute.

Hamza Fiyyaz of Rawalpindi scored a consolation goal in the 42nd minute. Both the teams got five penalty corners each. Multan managed to convert two.

In the second match, Faisalabad defeated Gujranwala by 2-0.

Shahbaz Ahmed of Faisalabad netted the goals in the 32nd and 56th minutes of the match through impressive field moves. Faisalabad and Gujranwala got nine and three penalty corners, respectively.

Sahiwal bounced back from a 2-goal deficit and carved out a tense 4-3 victory against DG Khan in the third match of the day.

Sahiwal strikers struck four goals on the trot: in 36th, 42nd, 47th and 51st after conceding two goals in the first 33 minutes.

Skipper Rehman Ali, M Fazeel, M Salman and M Ahmed scored for the winning team. Taqi-ul-Hasan, Syed Noman and John Alia were the scorers of DG Khan.

Sargodha stunned Lahore by 4-3 in the last match of the day. Lahore took the lead in the 12th minute but Sargodha leveled the score in the 20th minute. Sargodha added two goals in 38 and 43rd minutes to strengthen their position.

Lahore bounced back and squared the score with two goals in 46th and 49th minutes. However, Sargodha netted the match-winning goal in the 54th minute through a penalty corner.