65th Air Marshal Nur Khan National Hockey Championship

KARACHI: The third game of the day was a stand-out affair as KPK region gave a strong Police department a run for their money coming behind from deficits to equal but Noman’s last minute goal sealed the fate for Police who won by 4-3 in their match of the 65th Air Marshal Nur Khan National Hockey Championship here at Abdul Sattar Edhi Stadium on Saturday.

The fifth day came to life after 2 one sided games when KPK and Police met in the 3rd game. There was an intense game play as 1st quarter was goal less but Shahbaz scored an amazing goal in the 30th minute of 2nd quarter through a penalty corner as Police got reward for their attacking game but KPK defence line kept them tight. Abrar scored on penalty corner in the 3rd quarter to extend the lead but there were goals galore in the last quarter as KPK played out of their skins and got through Police defence line scoring two goals in two minutes to equal. Shahbaz once again scored for Police via a penalty corner to take a lead Ismail scored a brilliant field goal for KPK to equal within two minutes as Noman rose to the occasion scoring a wonderful goal in 59th minute The first game of the day saw PIA thrashing Islamabad by 8-0 as they remain dominant scoring in the 3rd minute when Hammad Anjum scored through a field goal ending 1st quarter 2-0.A sole goal was scored by PIA in the 2nd quarter after Shafqat Rasool netted a field goal.PIA continued the dominance netting 5 goals in second half as Roman Khan scored two field goals.

In the second game Fata was clueless as Army thrashed them 16-0 as Waseem Akram scored a hat trick netting four goals in the match he opened the account in the 6th minute converting a field goal as Army ended the 1st quarter at 3-0. In the 2nd quarter they netted 4 goals and 5 the 3rd and 4 in the last quarter as Sohail also scored a hat trick netting 3 goals.

The fourth game saw NBP netting a whooping 27 goals against a clueless Gilgit team. Abu Bakr scored in the 2nd minute on a penalty corner as NBP netted 5 goals in the 1st quarter and at half time NBP lead by 11-0. Dilbar Hussain scored a triple hat trick netting 10 goals in the match as Atiq Arshad also scored a hat trick who netted 3 goals in the last quarter. Bilal Qadir also scored a hat trick as he scored 3 field goals as 16 goals were scored by Army in the second half against a weak Gilgit defence line. The last game of the day was also an interesting game between PQA and Navy. There was some great stick work but Navy disciplined hockey and kept attacking and made circle penetrations regularly but PQA kept defence tight as 1st quarter was goal-less. But in the Akbar Ali scored a field goal in the 17th minute from the right flank and four minutes later Sabir netted a great reverse stick goal but PQA beat the tight Navy defence scoring in the 30th minute via a field goal when Rehman converted a brilliant pass to make it 2-1 at half-time. The third quarter ended goal less as both teams lacked the finishing but in the last quarter PQA wasted a penalty corner to equalize and Navy’s Asad Azhar scored in end through a penalty to take them to a deserving victory by 3-1.