PR, NBP and Customs win their matches in the 5th Customs Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup Hockey Tournament

Lahore: Pakistan Railways, National Bank of Pakistan and Customs have won their matches in the 5^th Customs Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup Hockey Tournament at the Customs Preventive Service Club & Sports Complex here on Saturday. Customs Directorate of Sports is organizing this tournament in collaboration with the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) which aims at to spot future talent for the national team. Railways beat Pakistan Steels 4-3, NBP clubbed Police 21.0 and hosts Customs hardly managed to beat Karachi 3-2.

The inaugural match between Railways and Pakistan Steel was full of thrill and excitement. The steel men were leading by two goals in the first two quarts, both scored by Abbas Haider on penalty corners, but they lost their grip on the proceedings which suddenly slipped into Railways’ favour in the third quart the rail men not only leveled the score but took a goal lead as well. Qasim Ahmed successfully converted two penalty corners. Then Zeeshan scored a beautiful field goal to give his team a goal lead. In the last quart Pakistan Steels tried hard to bounce back but failed to break the sturdy defense of their opponents. Both teams, however, scored a goal each in the last quart. Mohammed Irfan converted a penalty corner for Steels and Mohammed Rizwan also struck a goal on penalty corner.

The Bankers thrashed Police ruthlessly in the second match of the day. In first two quarts they scored 11 goals to register their dominance. Policemen hardly succeeded in entering bankers’ area which was heavily guarded by their full-backs while their forwards were on the offensive throughout the match. Arslan Qadir and Subtain Raza scored four goals each. Ali Shan scored three goals. Mubasshar Ali, Aamir Ali and Mohammed Dilber score two goals each while Tousiq Arshad scored one goal.

Hosts Customs had to struggle hard against Karachi in the last match of the day. However, brilliant display of stick work by Rizwan Khan guided Customs to win the match 3-2. He scored a goal on penalty corner and another field goal. Haseem Khan scored the third goal for Customs. Fareed Mansoor and Wasim Aslam scored a goal each for Karachi. At the end Governor Sindh Ishrat ul Abbad was the chief guest of the last match who was introduced with the players.