Pak Army, PIA, NBP, Railways, WAPDA, Customs, Pakistan Education Board, and Punjab (C) have secured their berths in the quarterfinals

Karachi: Pak Army, PIA, NBP, Railways, WAPDA, Customs, Pakistan Education Board, and Punjab (C) have secured their berths in the quarterfinals of the ongoing 33^rd National Junior Hockey Championship at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium here on Tuesday.

Earlier the pool matches were completed on the sixth day of the Championship. Railways and Army fought very hard to grab the top position in their pool in the opening match which turned out to be a very exciting game. Both teams demonstrated their brilliant dribbling and dodging skills. They launched a number of offensive moves against each other amid short and long passes but lady luck favored Railways which earned a lone goal victory in the end.

The first two halves produced aggressive stick work between the two teams. Army forwards missed a chance in the second half when Mohammed Asad intercepted a pass from his opponent but his hard hit went outside. Again they initiated a fine move through Fahad Sajjad and Adnan Khalid but Karamat Ali failed to deflect a cross from Khalid. In he third half of the match Railways’ captain Zeeshan snatched the ball and sprinted to the D to pass it to Hamza Waheed whose beautiful defeletion earned a goal for his team. Army men lost a golden chance in the 57^th minute when forward Ali Haider took control of the ball and passed it to Zubair Ahmed in the D who took a couple of more seconds to decide as to which corner of the goal post he should direct his hit. Muneer and Shahidervaiz supervised the match.

WAPDA outclassed Customs in the second match of the day with a 5-1 victory. The winners were on the offensice from the start and slammed a goal on penalty corner through Mohammed Ahed in the 6^th minute. In the second half Umar Hamdi successfully converted a penalty corner to double the lead. In the third half Bilal Mahmood took the ball from the center and dribbled skillfully to reah the D where he dodged defenders and netted a beautiful field goal in the 39^th minute.

WAPDA scored two more field goals through Mudassar Alil in the 44^thand Ali Bahadar in the 58^th minutes respectively. Customs scored their lone goal in the 40^thminute through Mateen who conveted a penalty corner. They missed a coulple of chances to reduce the margin particularly in the last half. Ghufran and Kamran MP were the two umpires.

Punjab (C) outshined Sindh (C) 9-2 in the last but one sided match of the day. Punjab’s Ghulam Abbas scored two field goals in the 21^st min and 34^th min while Hammad Hasan also scored two goals 25^th min a field goal and in the 43^rd minute on penalty corner. Qasim Ahmed (2^nd minute goal on penalty corner), Mohamed Asif (6^th minute field goal), Mohsin Sabir (29^th minute field goal), Faizan Alvi (49^th minute field goal) and Hunain Anwar (60^thminute field goal) wee the other scorers. From Sindh Qasimullah scored two beautiful field goals in the 38^th and 58^th minutes respectively. Imran and Sohail supervised the umpires.