January 30, 2002	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 15, 1422

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Police 5 Punjab ‘B’ 0

Sindh ‘B’ 4 Balochistan ‘A’ 3

PTCL 7 NWFP ‘A’ 1

KARACHI, Jan 29: Reigning champions Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and Police reached the quarterfinals of the Habib Bank Junior Under-18 National Hockey Championship after recording one-sided victories at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Tuesday.

PTCL outpaced and outclassed NWFP ‘A’ 7-1 after leading 2-0 at lemon time whereas Police defeated Punjab ‘B’ 5-0 after enjoying a slender 1-0 advantage at halftime.

However, in the showpiece morning session match, inside-left Wasif Raza scored a 70th minute goal to help Sindh ‘B’ overpower Balochistan ‘A’ 4-3 in an entertaining encounter.

Sindh ‘B’ led 2-0 at halftime but trailed 3-2 after Balochistan ‘A’ sounded the board thrice in five minutes. Sindh spearhead Ashiq Ali found the equalizer five minutes from the final hooter before Wasif banged the match winner in the dying movement of the match played at a fast pace with both the teams fighting for supremacy.

Earlier, Sindh ‘B’ found the cage twice in two minutes through Adnan Hamid (14) and Wasif Raza (15) to indicate that it would be an easy ride for the local team.

But change of ends resulted in change of fortunes for Balochistan ‘A’ who stormed back with force with Mohammad Nadeemuddin leading the onslaught. The left-winger first scored with an accurate shot to reduce the margin in the 39th minute and then flicked the ball into the cage four minutes later to draw level.

Sindh had hardly recovered from the jolt when an unmarked Junaid Iqbal took full advantage of home team’s slackness to put his team in front in the 44th minute.

Trailing by a goal, Sindh made desperate effort to find the equalizer and secured five penalty corners. But all went in vain until Ashiq showed his class and finally a magical touch by Wasif earned them maximum points.

In the afternoon session match, Arif and Akhtar Ali all the goals between them to guide PTCL to a convincing 7-1 victory over NWFP ‘A’ with the last four minutes producing