KP, Army, Punjab, Baluchistan win in junior hockey

KARACHI: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (w), ARMY, Punjab (w) and Baluchistan registered victories in their matches in the 35th National Junior Championship at the National Hockey Stadium here on Thursday.

KP (w) beat Custom 4-2, Army humbled Islamabad 11-0, Punjab (w) defeated Police 2-1 and Baluchistan defeated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (c) 1-0.

KP took control of the match in the first quarter by scoring two goals against Customs.

Their Captain Zahidullah struck the first goal in the 2nd minute on a penalty corner. Their forward Khairullah dodged defenders to score a beautiful field goal in the 10th minute.

Khairullah scored his second goal in the 36th minute.

Customs forwards awoke from a deep slumber in the third quarter and reduced the margin with one field goal each from Ali Aziz and Adnan Khalid in the 46th and 50th minutes, respectively. Customs got seven penalty corners but converted none. KP’s Hayat scored the fourth goal for his team in the 53rd minute. Anwar Chaudhary and Yasir Khursheed supervised the match.

Noman scored a hat-trick and Abbas, Imran and Umar Hayat struck two goals each as Army humbled Islamabad in a one-sided match. Noman scored field goals in the 6th, 8th and 46th minutes.

Abbas struck two field goals in the 44th and 47th minutes. Imran netted two field goals in the 21st and 45th minutes. Umar converted a penalty corner in the 39th minute and scored a field goal in the 57th minute.

Sajid and Jahangir netted one field goal each in the 15th and 40th minutes.

The army men demonstrated excellent control over the ball which kept rolling in Islamabad’s area. They hardly allowed their opponents to enter their area. Islamabad’s players lacked in skill and experience and faltered in passing the ball. They got one penalty corner in the 7th minute which they wasted as their forward failed to score on rebound.

Haroon Rasheed and Mahmood Ali were the field umpires.

The match between Punjab (w) and Police provided real entertainment to the spectators as both teams played aggressively and made beautiful moves.

Police jolted Punjab (w) with a beautiful field goal in the 10th minute through Ashar Tariq but after that lead their forwards failed to maintain their supremacy.

Punjab (w) responded brilliantly in the second quarter when they leveled the score in the 26th minute through a beautiful field goal by Mohammed Yasir.

Both teams fought hard to outshine each other which produced excellent stick work. Mohammed Umar scored the second goal for Punjab in the 39th minute. Police tried hard to level but Punjab (w) defended their fort bravely. Afsar Ali and Mohammed Wali supervised the match.

Both KP and Baluchistan adopted defensive strategy in the last match of the day. First two quarters produced no goal. However, Baluchistan changed their strategy in the third quarter and made a number of inroads into their opponents’ circle. They converted one of the three penalty corners in the quarter. Ejaz Shabbir struck the lone goal of the match in the 42nd minute. Sohail Janjua and Ghulam Moheyuddin were the field umpires. ICC President Zaheer Abbas was the chief guest at the last match.