KRL finish behind League winners Wapda with 58 points, followed by PIA who have 57 points. -White Star/Stephan Andrew

LAHORE: Kahuta-based Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) maintained their reputation as one of the three top teams of Pakistan when they cemented their second place in the Pakistan Premier Football League after a goalless draw with PIA.

Never having finished beyond the third spot in the PPFLsince 2004, once again they collected the required point  at Sharafi Goth's Korangi Baloch Stadium.

KRL, under the captaincy of Samar Ishaq, earned 58 points in their 30 allotted matches while PIA also completed their quota of the matches and despite scoring 49 goals they finished third with 57 points.

In the other match of the day, KPT drew 2-2 with Army at Peoples Sports Complex. The star performer of the match was Muhammad bin Younus of Karachi’s Baloch Union Fc who became the joint third best scorer with 13 goals along with Abdul Rehman of KESC.

 Wapda’s Arif Mehmood topped the scorers list with 20 goals, followed by SSGC’s spearhead Asim Faiz.

Muhammad slammed both the goals for KPT leaving Jaffar Khan in no man’s land on both occasions. Muhammad opened the scoring in the 47th minute following a one-two with Shahid Salim after a listless first session that produced no goal.

But after six minutes had elapsed, the soldiers hit back through Noor who dashed through the middle, giving keeper Ehsan Ullah no chance with a left-footed drive.

But Muhammad re-infused new spirit in the KPT bench with another spectacular goal in the 55th minute. It was left to Army to engineer an all-out search. Former Pakistani skipper and midfielder Muhammad Ikram hammered his fifth goal of the event in the 79th minute to make it 2-2.

The 240th and last match of the ongoing event will be on Thursday, 30 December between KESC and Wapda at 2.30 PM.