Wapda crowned U-21 hockey champions
LAHORE, Feb 7: Wapda annexed the 32nd National Junior Under-21 Hockey Championship title after carving out a 2-0 win against National Bank of Pakistan in the final played in Faisalabad on Thursday.
Wapda led the first half 1-0 and added one more in the second half to dominate throughout the proceedings, according to the information reaching here.
Wapda took the lead when their Asad Bashir sounded the board in the 12th minute through a field attempt with their lone goal ascendancy being in place until the half time as the bankers could not succeed to restore the parity.
After resumption of play, Wapda doubled the lead through Mohammad Umair who found the cage in the 63rd minute after launching a solo field attempt to seal the fate of the final.
Earlier, Sui Southern Gas Company fought hard to edge out PIA 3-2 to seize third place.
It was one-all at the half time as the gruelling fight for supremacy continued till the final whistle, but finally SSGC earned the honour against a strong team.
The winners went on to take the lead first in the ninth minute as Arslan Sherazi fired a field goal. But the national carrier bounced back to make it one-all when Rizwan Ali struck the equaliser in the 20th minute. Fight for domination reached its peak soon after start of second session as the PIA earned 2-1 lead when their Nohaiz Malik netted a goal in the 37th minute which was again neutralised after a minute by SSGC’s Sohail when he hit the equaliser.
Maintaining aggression in the rival’s goalpost, SSGC scored the winner through Mohammad Asif in the 69th minute to complete the tally.