LAHORE - Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Pakistan Army have won their matches on the seventh day of the 1st Brigadier (r) Manzoor Hussain Atif Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Sargodha Hockey Stadium. PIA thumped Railways 3-0, NBP beat PAF 2-0 and Army defeated Punjab 4-1, according to information made available here on Saturday.
In the opening match of the day, Railways played well against much experienced opponents and launched a couple of attacks in the first half and their defense was also praiseworthy. Their defenders kept on PIA forwards struggling to score their first goal which they ultimately registered in the 25th minute on a penalty corner hit by Ihsanullah. Nohaiz Malik scored the second goal in the 47th minute while Ihsanullah struck a penalty corner in the 54th minute to end the match at 3-0.
PAF guarded their fort well against star-studded NBP and repulsed their numerous attacks throughout the match. NBP scored their first goal in the 22nd minute through M Dilber. PAF forwards pressed hard for the equalizer and in the process, they secured a penalty corner in the 29th minute but failed to convert it. NBP earned their second goal on a penalty stroke in the 37th minute.
Army defeated Punjab in the third match of the day 4-1. Army opened only after five minutes in the match as the first goal came from M Adnan on penalty corner. Punjabians bounced back in the 39th minute and got a penalty corner and then penalty stroke which their forward Zubair Riaz neatly struck to level the score. Pakistan captain M Imran, who is also leading the Army team, struck two goals in the 42nd and 52nd minutes respectively to consolidate his team’s position. Abdul Jabbar was the other scorer who netted in the 46th minute. Today (Sunday)’s fixtures: Police vs Navy at 1pm and PIA vs Wapda-B at 3:30pm.