LAHORE, Feb 7: Wapda, HBL, NBP and PIA registered wins in the final round of the ongoing 56th National Hockey Championship here at the national Hockey Stadium on Saturday.
Wapda beat Railways 6-0 with Mohammad Shabir (19th min), Rehan Butt (32nd min), Sohail Abbas (34th and 42nd mins), Mudassar Ali (44th min) and Waseem Ahmad (69th min) on a goal-scoring spree. Abbas scored both goals by converting penalty corners.
Two-goal Rana Zubair (58th and 68th mins) enabled Habib Bank Limited (HBL) beat Port Qasim Authority (PQA) 3-1. Both of Rana’s goals were scored through penalty corner conversion in the 58th and 68th minute.
The third goal for the winners came through Azlan Khan in the 66th minute. PQA’s consolation goal came through Javed Mazhar in the 24th minute.
Meanwhile, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) beat Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) 4-1. Mohammad Atiq scored a hat-trick for NBP by converting three penalty corners (second, 12th, 38th mins) while the remaining one came through Ammar Ishrat in the 54th minute.
SSGC’s lone goal was scored by Shabbir Ahmed in the 69th minute.
Then PIA edged past Army 1-0. The decider was scored by Waqas Akbar in the 34th minute.
In the tray championship, Pakistan Steel beat Balochistan 8-0 and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) beat NWFP 6-1.
PAF and KESC, the two top teams in the tray championship have qualified for the final round of next year’s national championship, while the two last teams, Punjab and Railways, will play in the final round of the tray championship next year.
Four more matches will be played on the last day of the final round on Sunday.
Sunday’s fixtures: Railways v Punjab at 9.00am, PQA v Navy at 11.00am, Army v Wapda at 1.00pm, PIA v NBP at 3.00pm. All the four matches will be telecast live on PTV. —Agencies
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