35th National Junior Hockey Championship commenced at National Hockey Stadium

Lahore: Punjab Colours, Sui Southern Gas Company, National Bank of Pakistan and WAPDA have converged up victories in the ongoing 35^th National Junior Hockey Championship that commenced at the National Hockey Stadium here on Wednesday. Punjab (c) beat Pakistan Ordnance Factory 3-1 in the opening match. SSGC outclassed Sindh 5-1, NBP beat Pakistan Board 9-0 and WAPDA beat Railways 2-1.

Hat-trick of field goals by Daud Ahmed guided Punjab Colours to defeat POF. Daud struck his first goal in the 6^th minute and exerted more pressure in the second quart with his second goal on a pass from Mohsin Sabir in the 28^thminute. Trailing by two goals the POF bounced back furiously in the third quart which turned the one-sided match in an interesting encounter. They demonstrated aggressive stick work amid accurate passing. In the 41^st minute Amjad and Amir Farooq made a productive move and in the Circle Amjad availed the pass which he neatly struck to reduce the margin. The POF forwards made some other good moves later and got two back to back penalty corners in the 44^thand 45^th minutes but they failed to finish. Daud completed his hat-trick in the 56^th minute on a pass from Ghulam Abbass. Faisal Sayyam and Abdul Mannan supervised the match.

SSGC defeated Sindh in the second match. The winners dominated from the proceedings from the start of the match. They opened their account in the 4^thminute through Hassan Anwar who successfully converted a penalty corner. In the 27^th minute Zeeshan Bukhari doubled the lead through a field goal. SSGC forwards demonstrated excellent stick work in the third quart score three field goals in a span of eight minutes to completely subdue their opponents. Rana Suhail in the 31^st, Adeel Latif in the 37^th and team Captain Mohammed Rizwan in the 38^th minutes struck beautiful goals. Sindh’s goal keeper Khalil saved at least three penalty corners. While Babar also dashed to save a penalty corner in the 53^rd minute. Sindh’s Anas struck from the edge of the Circle to score his side’s lone goal in the 59^thminute. Sabir Ahmed and Ghulam Moheyuddin were the field umpires.

NBP faced no resistance in their match against Pakistan Board who they subdued in a one sided match. Bilal Qadir (11^th min & 52^nd min) and Amir Ali (16^th min & 58^th min) scored two goals each. Ali Raza (20^th), Azfar Yaqoob (21^st min), Abubakar Mehmood (25^th min) and Mohammed Dilber (49^th min) scored one field goal each. Mohammed Junaid converted a penalty corner in the 60^thminute of the match. Faisal Ismail and Mohammed Anwar supervised the match.

Experienced WAPDA team has to fought hard to defeat Railways in the last match which turned out to be the most interesting encounter of the opening day. Railways gave very tough time to their opponents and frustrated their inroads in first two quarts. Their full backs and goal keeper successfully guarded their fort in the first two quarts. In the 38^th minute Mohammed Mateen converted a penalty corner in the 38^thminute to give a goal lead to WAPDA which was doubled by Sohail Anjum’s field goal in the 48^th minute. Railways bounced back through Mohammed Shaharyar to reduce the margin through a beautiful field goal in the 49^th minute. In the dying moments they leveled the goal but umpire after referral disallowed it. Sohail Janjua and Ameer Hamza were the field umpires.

Earlier Director General Sports Board Punjab Usman Anwar inaugurated the Championship in a colourful ceremony. He announced Rs.500, 000 for the winners, Rs. 300, 000 for the runners up and Rs. 200, 000for the third position.

Today’s Matches (Thursday): Customs vs KPK (w), AMY vs Islamabad, police vs Punjab (w), KPK (c) vs Baluchistan.