Sohail’s five goals send SSGC to semi-finals

PIA, NBP, WAPDA also make it to the last-four of 9-a-Side Tournament

KARACHI: Rana Sohail’s five goals guided SSGC into the semi-finals of the Pakistan Cup 9-a-Side Hockey Tournament as PIA, NBP and Wapda also booked their berths in the last-four at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium in Karachi on Thursday night.

SSGC thumped Pakistan Customs 7-2 as Tofeeq scored the opening goal in the seventh minute to take the lead, which was levelled by Customs’ Hasnain Hussain in the next minute. Salman Razzaq of Customs then struck in the next minute to give Customs a 2-1 lead, which was soon equalised in the 11th minute by SSGC’s Sohail to end the first half 2-2.

Sohail then struck in the 23rd and 27th minutes, while Razzaq scored in the 31st minute with Sohail completing his quintet of goals eight minutes later to hand SSGC a big win.

In another group match, PIA beat Pakistan Hockey Federation Development Squad (PDS) Whites 4-1 as Muhammad Zubair scored a hat-trick and Haseem Khan found the net once. PDS Whites’ lone goal came off the stick of Fayyaz Yaqoob.

Meanwhile, NBP defeated PDS Colors 2-1 with Arsalan Qadir finding the back of the net in the 22nd minute, followed by Ilyas’ goal three minutes later for PDS Colors. Shan Irshad scored NBP’s winner seven minutes later. In the last match of the day, Wapda downed PAF 4-0.

The semi-finals will be played today, with PIA facing SSGC and NBP taking on Wapda to book one of the two spots in the final.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2016.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.