National Hockey Championship: Adnan, Karim strike to take PTV to last-eight

Defeat Pakistan Steel Mills 2-1 in thrilling encounter

KARACHI: Adnan and Karim Khan scored a goal apiece to steer Pakistan Television (PTV) into the quarter-finals of the 62nd National Hockey Championship by defeating Pakistan Steel Mills 2-1 in a thrilling encounter at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium in Karachi on Monday.

Before the game, PTV sat on fourth with four points and needed nothing less than a win to pip Steel Mills, who were second in Pool B with six points, for a place in the last-eight.

Determined to progress from the group stage, PTV took the game by the scruff of the neck from the onset and continuously tested Steel Mills’ defence in the opening minutes of the game. They succeeded in finding the opener when Adnan netted a beautiful field goal in the 11th minute to give his side a 1-0 lead.



For the next 24 minutes, PTV managed to keep their opposition at bay but were helpless when Mohammad Imran netted the equaliser in the 35th minute to keep his sides’ hopes of progressing to the last-eight alive. Sadly for Steel Mills, all those hopes were quashed when Karim took his team ahead with a spectacular strike in the 51st minute, which proved enough to take PTV into the quarter-finals.

In another match, NBP, who had already booked their place in the last-eight by topping their pool with a whopping goal difference of +30, cruised past PAF 6-2 to conclude the group-stage encounters.



Other teams to qualify for the quarter-finals are PIA and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) from Pool A, Pakistan Army and SSGC from Pool C and NBP and Navy from Pool D.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2016.

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