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| March 17, 2002 | Sunday | Muharram 2, 1423 |
Sindh ‘B’, Punjab ‘A’ advance to main round
Sindh ‘B’ 2 Punjab ‘A’ 3
Balochistan ‘B’ 4 Islamabad 2
Punjab ‘B’ 6 NWFP ‘A’ 1
KARACHI, March 16: Sindh ‘B’ and Punjab ‘A’ qualified for the main round from pool ‘B’ after a seesaw game that ended with a 3- 2 scoreline in favour of the latter in the 49th HBL national hockey championship inter-provincial preliminary round Saturday.
Although Sindh ‘B’ lost, they reached the main round having better goal average. Both, Sindh ‘B’ and Punjab ‘A’ gained six points to become the qualifiers from their pool.
The home side, although did not look as agile as Punjab, started with a 3rd-minute goal from Shabbir Hussain who made no mistake in converting a penalty corner off a rebound.
Sturdy boys from Punjab took just three minutes to level the scores. Punjab’s skipper Amir Sahi missed a sitter seconds before the compensation came from Mohammad Yousuf who grabbed the equaliser on a short corner.
Both the sides were left with ten players in the field after skippers Amir and Sindh’s Rizwan Khan were shown yellow cards for rough play and dissent.
Yousuf grabbed the lead for Punjab when he slammed the board, once again on a penalty corner in the 30th minute. Amir returned in the second half to increase the lead in the 48th minute.
A controversy erupted on 58 minute when umpire Chowdhry Tanveer allowed a goal to Sindh on a penalty corner but reversed his decision later on Punjab’s protest and after consulting umpire Iftikhar Ahmad.
According to new rules, Tanveer took a belated but a correct decision since Sindh’s Mudassir Abbas had scored through sweep that hit the net missing the board.
Rizwan found the cage in the dying moments of the game to make it 3-2.
Balochistan ‘B’, who arrived 45 minutes late in the field, scored a 4-2 triumph over minnows Islamabad
However, allowing Balochistan to play was a clear violation of FIH rules according to which any team that could not turn up on time should be scratched from the tournament.
Since the national championship is being played according to FIH rules, Balochistan should have been disqualified according to FIH’s rule 12.1 (failure to play) which says: “A team refuses to play or to complete a match shall be considered as withdrawing from the tournament.
Rule 12.2 says: “If a team thus withdrawn from the tournament, all the matches it has played until then will be considered as not having played, not only by the withdrawing team, but also by all the teams it had played against. The points table shall be corrected accordingly.”
Balochistan slammed home few seconds after the start through Kamran Sabir on a penalty corner, while Islamabad equalised through Nadeem Ishtiaq in the 6th minute.
Two goals from Balochistan’s Kamran (7th minute) and Mohammad Shahzad (24th minute) were followed by a goal from Islamabad’s Ayaz Khan (26th minute).
Balochistan completed the proceedings with a 61st-minute penalty stroke converted by Mohammad Shahid.
Punjab ‘B” gave NWFP ‘A” a hockey lesson when they destroyed them 6-1.
Punjab’s captain Ayaz Baig blasted home a 10th-minute short corner on a rebound, while his teammate Ikramullah added second in the 17th minute.
The game had to be stopped in the 18th minute to let the Punjab players change their light camel colour kits as it was causing mix-ups and confusion to NWFP players wearing white kits.
Punjab, who were reduced to ten players in the 27th minute when Mohammad Adeel was shown a yellow card, pumped in via Atif Yaqoob in the 43rd minute, while NWFP got their consolation through Yasir Islam.
Punjab completed the tally with Ikramullah (46th minute), Sheeraz Khursheed (52nd minute), and Mohammad Saleem (57th minute), scoring once.
Sunday’s fixtures:
Islamabad v Punjab ‘B’ at 2.00pm; NWFP ‘A’ v Sindh ‘A’ at 3.30pm.
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