NBP clinch hockey championship

Sohail Abbas contributed to Wapda’s victory with a goal in the 27th minute as the team finished at third place.

KARACHI: Mohammad Tousiq scored a brace as NBP beat PIA 4-3 in the final of the 58th National Hockey Championship in Faisalabad. NBP finished the campaign with 27 points and remained undefeated in the tournament.

Mohammad Atiq converted a penalty corner in the 10th minute as NBP led 1-0 at the interval.

PIA’s Yasir Islam scored the equaliser in the 41st minute, but Tousiq doubled the score for NBP in the next few seconds. Yasir Shabbir then added to PIA’s woes, giving NBP a 3-1 lead two minutes later.

Tousiq scored the fourth goal for NBP in the 48th minute and completing his brace. With a 4-1 deficit, PIA went all out and the effort was evident when Zaheer Ahmed struck a goal in the 49th minute before Ihsanullah converted a penalty corner six minutes later. However, the efforts were not enough and PIA had to be content with the runners-up trophy.

“It’s a huge achievement for me,” NBP captain Zeeshan Ashraf told The Express Tribune. “NBP have won their second national title under my captaincy.

“We were finishing runners-up for the past two years, so I believe it’s about time the hard work paid off.”

Ashraf, also the captain of Pakistan, added that the victory was extra special since the title was won with young players in the side.

“It makes me proud because NBP didn’t have big names like Wapda and PIA.

“So it just goes to show that hard work can take us further and we don’t necessarily need big players to win the championship.”

WAPDA secure third-place finish

Meanwhile, Wapda overcame SSGC 6-4 in a fight for the third place.  Waqas Sharif’s scored in the sixth, 25th and 49th minutes of the match and his hat-trick helped last year’s champions to take the lead over SSGC.

The other goals for the winners came from Sohail Abbas, Mohammad Imran and Rehan Butt, who scored one goal each in the 27th, 32nd and 66th minute of the third-place match.

However, SSGC replied with two goals from Shakeel Abbasi in the 14th and 51st minutes along with Muhammad Zeeshan and Arsalan Haider Sherazi’s in the 59th and 61st minutes.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2011.