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KARACHI Ageing star penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas remained unimpressive despite scoring twice in Wapda's 3-1 victory over Pakistan Army in the national hockey championship which rolled off on Saturday.
The full-back, who has been under fire for his pathetic performance at the World Cup where he scored just two goals and Pakistan finished at bottom of the table, was once again below par when he scored just once off four penalty corners. His second goal came through a penalty stroke which was obviously the easiest way to score even for an amateur.
Sohail was even criticised by his coach Shahid Ali Khan for his poor performance along with other senior players at the World Cup.
Wapda were certainly unimpressive against their rookie opponents considering the numbers of top Pakistan players in their ranks. Apart from Sohail, Wapda had the services of several other Pakistan players - Waseem Ahmad, Rehan Butt, Imran Khan, Sajjad Anwar, and Waqas Sharif.
After struggling for 27 minutes, the winners finally opened the scoring through a penalty corner conversion by Sohail which proved the only goal by the defender through short corner at the Hockey Club of Pakistan.
Army retaliated in the 38th minute when Kashif Ali put the game on an even keel in the 38th minute before Waqas put Wapda 2-1 up with a field effort in the 60th minute. Sohail found the target on a penalty stroke five minutes before the end.
Akhtar Ali and Muhammad Ateeq scored two goals each in NBP's 7-0 win against PAF.
Ateeq drew first blood when he found the cage twice on penalty corners in the 12th and 17th minutes, while Naeem Akbar scored on a short corner four minutes before the halftime.
Akhtar came into action one minute into second half before completing his double in the 44th minute. Pakistan centre-forward Haseem Khan added the sixth goal in the 54th minute, while Muhammad Tauseeq wrapped up the game with an impressive penalty corner conversion two minutes later.
PIA handed a 5-1 defeat to Pakistan Navy.
Inayatullah's second-minute opening goal for PIA was equalised by Navy through Muhammad Imran who scored a penalty stroke five minutes before the lemon time.
PIA went 3-1 up when Mahmood Ali was on target in the 49th minute and Mohammad Zubair slammed home just 60 seconds later.
The winners finished off with goals from Mohammad Irfan and Kashif Ali in the 51st and 53rd minutes.
The first match between Wapda and Army was delayed as turf cannot be watered because of power failure.
Sunday's fixtures
HBL v Port Qasim Authority at 2.00pm; Navy v Wapda at 3.30pm; SSGC v KESC at 5.00pm.
