Lahore, Bahawalpur, Multan, Faisalabad win

LAHORE: Lahore, Bahawalpur, Multan and Faisalabad won their matches on Wednesday in the Quaid-e-Azam Inter-Division Hockey Championship here at National Hockey Stadium.

Multan defeated Sahiwal by 2-1. Usman Iftikhar of Multan struck the first goal of the match in the 19th minute through a penalty stroke. The next goal was scored by Akbar Ali of Multan in 46th minute when he sent the ball into goal post after an impressive field move hatched by his forward line.

Sahiwal’s skipper Rehman Ali scored a field goal in 54th minute but it was too late for them to change the fate of the match.

In the second match of the day, the spirited Bahawalpur stunned the strong Sargodha by 2-1 in a closely fought encounter.

Bahawalpur’s Ali Murtaza and skipper Absar bin Rauf struck two field goals within four minutes time in 43rd and 47th minutes to put their team in a strong position. Ibrar Arshad of Sargodha converted a penalty corner to score his team’s only goal in 59th minute.

The third encounter was played between DG Khan and Faisalabad. Faisalabad did not allow their opponents to settle down throughout the match and pulverised them by a big margin of 6-0. M Usman and Ibrahim (two goals each), captain Ali Raza and Hasan Shahbaz scored their goals in 11th, 31st, 34th, 39th, 43rd and 52nd minutes.

Lahore defeated Gujranwala by 4-1 in the fourth and last match of the day. Hasan Ameen of Lahore was in prime form. He netted three beautiful field goals in 36th, 38th and 55th minutes while the fourth goal was scored by Hammad Ali in 49th minute on a penalty stroke. Gujranwala’s lone goal was scored by Abdul Rehman in 7th minute of the match.