2nd CNS All Pakistan Hockey Tournament: National Bank & WAPDA In Final
LAHORE: The final of the 2nd Chief of Naval Staff All Pakistan Hockey will be a repeat of the final of the last national championships. The national champions National Bank and WAPDA won their respective semifinals against two ‘Gas’ outfits in contrasting fashions at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore and qualified for the final.
National Bank Scrape Past SSGC in Shootout
It was experience vs youth. Bank rich with current members of the national team faced the Sui Southern Gas Company comprising mostly young national senior and junior players.
An exciting encounter was witnessed. Though, it was mostly midfield play during the first quarter.
In the very first minute of the second quarter, National Bank forged ahead on a penalty corner when the promising drag flicker Abubakr Mahmood’s deceptive angular flat push found the left corner of the goal. Game’s tempo increased. SSGC also gained a couple of PCs but it was 1-0 when the teams changed ends.
National Bank were definitely the better side during the third quarter. They created a number of chances including two PCs but the target eluded them. Arslan Qadir made the best attempt. His first time top of the circle shot came off the post SSGC’s custodian Amjad was in superb form throughout the match.
In the initial minutes of the last quarter, Amjad again foiled two good WAPDA attempts. However, the last 10 minutes of the match was all SSGC. The youngsters repeatedly entered the bankers circle but couldn’t score off a number of chances including a couple of sitters.
With just three minutes left, the gasmen had their only PC of the second half. After a fumble at the top, the ball reached Rana Sohail in the mid circle who expertly pushed it in to earn his side a well deserved equaliser.
After 60 minutes, it was 1-1
The shoot out also provided a lot of drama. Bankers just managed to win this match of all Pakistan Hockey Tournament it 3-2.
Scorers:
National Bank of Pakistan: Abubakr Mahmood – 1
Sui Southern Gas Company: Rana Sohail – 1
WAPDA’s Facile 4-1 Win Over SNGPL
Penalty Corner experts often make the difference and the second semifinal epitomised that.
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, the least fancied team among the four semifinalists with only a couple of junior internationals, carved out more chances, both open play and penalty corners, but still lost the match by some margin.
WAPDA studded with a number of internationals availed four of their five penalty corners while SNGPL failed to convert a single out of seven that came their way. Experienced international Aleem Bilal was WAPDA’s hero with a hat trick.
SNGPL had more of the play in the first half but trailed 1-2.
The third quarter saw more or less an even game and the scoreline did not change. WAPDA with a strong bench carried out quick and clever substitutions in the last quarter
and added two more PC goals.
Scorers:
WAPDA: Aleem Bilal – 3, Tauseeq Arshad – 1
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited: Samiuallah – 1
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