February 5, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 3,1423

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Wapda 4 PIA 2

HBL 4 NBP 3

KARACHI, Feb 4: Wapda stormed into the final after they brought PIA down to earth with a 4-2 rout thanks to two-goal Sohail Abbas and goalkeeping heroics of Mohammad Qasim in the 50th national hockey championship on Tuesday.

Wapda, who have emerged as the new superpowers of domestic hockey after drafting penalty corner exponent Sohail, set up a final date with Habib Bank (HBL) who sneaked into final after a hard fought 4-3 win over National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).

The final will be played on Thursday at 2.30pm at UBL Sports Complex.

The 24-time champions PIA failed to retain their title for the third consecutive time, while Wapda earned the honour of reaching the grand finale of the premier contest for the first time ever.

Wapda’s electrifying performance started with third-minute goal when Sohail’s deadly accurate push sounded the backboards but he limped off the field after being injured in the process.

Wapda team manager, Saghir Ahmad, however, alleged Sohail was deliberately hit on the leg by PIA goalkeeper Ahmad Alam to prevent the penalty corner striker from further damaging PIA.

“Ahmad hit Sohail on purpose. It was pre-planned as PIA did not want us to score through Sohail who was the major threat. Sohail had already scored when Ahmad swung his hockey stick despite there was no reason to do that,” Saghir said.

However, umpire Rashid Butt did not show a red card to Ahmad or any defender let alone a yellow or green. But gallant Sohail did not let down his new side and came back after few minutes.

PIA took eight minutes to equalise through Malik Shafqat’s penalty corner conversion. Sohail gave a matching response by hammering his second off a penalty stroke barely a minute later.

Rashid signalled for a stroke when Irfan Mahmood received Sohail’s drag flick on his chest during a penalty corner. PIA were awarded a stroke in the 26th minute but umpire Zulfiqar Hussain converted it into a penalty corner after consulting Rashid followed by protest from Wapda players.

PIA lost Irfan when he was ordered off for rough play in the dying minutes of the first half before which Shafqat missed the target with his effort sailing high and wide.

PIA retaliated soon after re-start and came near scoring but Shahbaz Ahmad’s try off an indirect drill went astray. Later Mohammad Farooq tested Qasim in the 45th minute only to be denied by ever-vigilant custodian.

Tenacious Wapda, a mixture of youth and experience, prevailed over PIA when they slotted home their third with Zakirullah on target in the 46th minute.

PIA finally got their second through Ali Raza’s short corner conversion in the 53rd minute. That proved their last hurrah as Qasim produced stunning performance and his stupendous save on a Mohammad Usman effort in the 65th minute kept PIA at bay.

While PIA were finding it hard to crack their rivals defence and beat Qasim, a move from midfield between Waseem Ahmad, Shabbir ended on a precise finish by Mudassir in the 66th minute which virtually sealed the fate of the match.

Wapda’s Shabbir was adjudged player of the match.