PIA, PAF and National Bank of Pakistan have registered victories

Lahore: Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Air Force and National Bank of Pakistan have registered victories on the fifth day of the ongoing All Pakistan NBP Hockey Tournament at the National Hockey Stadium here on Tuesday. PIA beat HEC 3-1, PAF beat Railways 3-2 and NBP beat ARMY 3-1.

PIA launched a productive attack in the second minute of the opening match and earned a penalty corner which Ehsanullah successfully converted to give his team lead. However, HEC defenders checked their attacks in the second quart. As the match started in the third quarter the HEC forwards made an aggressive move and Kamran Maqsood leveled the score with a beautiful field goal in the 38^th minute. PIA’s Atif Mustafa scored a field goal in the 44^th minute to give his team lead and in the 55^th minute Mohammed Zubair’s field goal consolidated his team’s position. Sohail and Shahid Pervaiz supervised the match.

Railways was unfortunate to face the defeat against PAF in the second match of the day. Railways initiated the attack soon after the match started and their forwards made a number of attacks. In the 13^th minute Haseeb, Rizwan and Zeeshan made a move and entered into the D where Aleem scored the first goal for his team on a pass. Only two minutes later another move by Zeeshan and Adnan created an opportunity for Arsalan to score the second goal for Railways. But the Railmen lost initiative after taking two-nil lead and faltered in their moves and defense.

In the last minute of the second quart PAF’s Usman Sami scored his first goal (30^th min) and in the 34^th minute Shahbaz;s field goal leveled the score 2-2. In the 54^th minute Usman again struck a beautiful field goal (his second) to take the score 3-2 which remained intact till the final whistle. Railways forwards made a very good move in the 57^th minute through Kamran, and Zeeshan but Arsalan failed to net the ball. Kamran Sharif and Afsaar were the field umpires.

NBP took lead in the 18^th minute of the last match of the day through Attique who successfully converted a penalty corner. ARMY bounced back ferociously to level the score in the 19^th minute. They made a very aggressive move through Mohammed Safeer and Hammad Zafar and Abdul Jabbar grabbed the opportunity that came in his way in the D to level the score. The match entered into a very interesting stage during which both teams tried hard to take possession of the ball and make moves take lead. The crowd enjoyed every moment of the match. NBP launched a very calculated onslaught in the last quart of the match to salvage their image. Their forwards found gaps and made combined moves amid short passes to score two goals in the 58^th(Akhtar Ali) and 59^th minutes (Faizan) respectively.  Rana Liaqat and Hamza supervised the match. Wednesday is the rest day.

Meanwhile,PHF announced that the trials to select final lineup for 17^thAsian Games will be held at Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium Islamabad on WEDNESDAY (today) at 3 pm.The National Selection Committee–headed by Islahuddin Siddiqui along with chief coach Shahnaz Sheikh, members Arshad Ali Chawdhry, Ayaz Mahmood, Khalid Bashir and Musaddiq Hussain will watch the trials and select the final squad. The captain of the national team will be announced by the Pakistan Hockey Federation.