Pakistan Steels Mills is scratched from the ongoing 10th Nishan-e-Haider Hockey Tournament

Lahore: Pakistan Steels Mills has been scratched from the ongoing 10^th Nishan-e-Haider Hockey Tournament in view of their terrible behaviour during the League match against Pakistan Railways at the Dring Stadium here on Sunday.

According to the Tournament Jury’s unanimous decision Railways will play the first semifinal against Pakistan International Airlines (White). The second semifinal will be played between WAPDA and Asia Ghee Mills.

For Steelmen the last match was a do or die issue as they were behind Railways on goal average. They badly needed victory to remain in the tournament while for Railways a mere draw was enough to reach into the semis. Both teams fought hard to outclass each other and initiated fierce attacks that won applauds from a large number of crowd gathered to witness a thrilling contest under floodlights. Sultan scored the first goal for Steelmen in the 5^th minute. Malik and Zubair scored goals in the 45^th and 59^th minutes respectively. Waji-ul- Hasan (43^rd min) and Qasim Ahmed (56^th min) scored for Railways.

In the last quart field umpire awarded a penalty corner to Railmen to which the Steelmen protested violently, particularly their goalkeeper Farhan used abusive language. He was shown Yellow Card followed by a Red Card after he snatched Cards from the field umpire.

Tournament Jury took a strong exception of the ugly incident which, according to them, was an attempt to spoil the grace of a well-organized Event. After the completion of the match the Jury unanimously decided to scratch the Steel Mills.

Earlier, PIA (White) defeated Bahawalpur 3-1 in their last match. Airliners started the match with a cautious approach and didn’t play their natural game to save their energy for the important semifinal. They did not press hard throughout the match. Their approach also affected the result of the match which they could have won with a big margin against the minnows of the tournament. PIA captain Mohammed Zubair scored the first goal in the 9^th minute. Amir Shehzad and Ammad Butt successfully converted penalty corners in the 13^th and 28^thminutes respectively. Bahawalpur lads had no match in experience and skill with the PIA players but they demonstrated some guts amid ample crowd support who applauded their every effort. Zohaib scored the lone field goal for Bahawalpur in the 32^nd minute.