Punjab XI cruised into the semifinals

Jalandhar: Punjab XI (Pakistan) have cruised into the semifinals of the ongoing 31^st Surjit Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium here on Friday. Placed in Pool-C Punjab XI defeated Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Delhi 3-1 to earn the top position in their pool.

The match belonged to Right-Half Waqas Sharif who scored two goals and Goalkeeper Imran Shah who saved three penalty corners to guide the visitors to earn victory over their opponents. Kashif Shah, Tousiq and team Captain Shafqat Rasool played brilliantly and demonstrated their class. They dribbled amazingly and baffled their opponents with their speed, skill and stamina. The crowd cheered their every move.

Both teams comprising of Olympians fought hard to outclass each other. The traditional style of Asian hockey was witnessed in the match which was enjoyed by the spectators. They cheered every moments of the match which started on a fast pace amid aggressive stick work of the forwards. Punjab XI was on the offensive since the beginning. Waqas, Kashif Shah, Mohamed Dilber made a good move in the 6^th minute and after struggling in the D Dilber passed the ball to Waqas whose neat deflection beat the goalkeeper. In the 20^th minute of the match Shafqat Rasool and Qayyum Dogar launched an attack and reached in the D where Waqas netted another goal on Shafqat’s pass. Punjab XI were leading 2-0 at the half time.

The deficit of two goals couldn’t deter the hosts to make offensive moves as the play started in the second half. Their forwards made a series of attacks which forced the visitors to be on the defensive. The home team kept control of the ball for a considerable time. In the 49^th minute Mandeep, Arun Rawat and Preetendar Singh made a combined move and earned a penalty corner. Olympian Diwakar Ram successfully converted the penalty corner to reduce the lead. The visitors doubled their efforts after that and made a series of moves to consolidate their team’s position. In the 52^nd minute Mohammed Haseeb’s blind pass to Shafqat in the D missed a certain goal. In the 64^th minute both Rizwan Junior and Haseeb failed to deflect a beautiful cross from Tasawar Abbas in the D.

Punjab XI was awarded a penalty corner in the last minute of the match which Tousiq successfully converted to finish the match at 3-1. Ripudaman and Varinder supervised the match. Waqas Sharif was given Rs. 7000 for scoring the first goal by a local sponsor.