28 March 2004	Sunday	06 Safar 1425

KARACHI, March 27: Inspired by a dazzling Imran Warsi hat trick and a Naeem Akbar winner, NBP reached the final of the national hockey championship departmental qualifying round after a nail-biting 4-3 victory over champions Wapda on Saturday.

The bankers will meet PTCL in final on Sunday who were powered by promising two-goal Akhtar Ali to a deserved 2-1 triumph over former champions PIA at Hockey Club of Pakistan.

The most interesting feature of the game was the performances of country's top two drag-flickers - Imran and Wapda's Sohail Abbas.

While Imran, who was main architect of NBP's win, has given the selectors a timely reminder and is still waiting for invitation for senior camp, Sohail either missed chances or was unnerved by fine goalkeeping by Shabbir Hussain of NBP.

Hat trick hero Imran, who poached his second consecutive treble in the tournament, gave NBP a blitzing start with his first penalty corner conversion off a rebound from Wapda goalkeeper Mohammad Qasim in the 8th minute.

Qasim, however, produced a stunning save with a left side dive to deny Imran in the 12th minute, while Sohail's powerful push went above the bar the next minute.

The game remained suspended for few minutes as NBP players and team officials complained the technical officials in the 20th minute about the English-made Mercian GT balls being used.

"We played the whole tournament with Australian Kookaburra balls and now the semifinal was played with Mercian balls which broke the tempo," NBP coach Tahir Zaman said.

Discarded Pakistan custodian Qasim was alert to thwart an attempt by Mohammad Anis. The bankers were unfortunate when Naved Iqbal scored the equaliser as his hit went into the cage off NBP defender Zeeshan Ashraf's stick two minutes before halftime.

Sohail's attempt was again blocked by onrushing Shabbir during the third penalty corner Wapda got barely few seconds before going for break.

The technical officials demanded Shabbir's glove to examine during breather after Sohail complained it seemed bigger than its usual size.

NBP broke the 1-1 deadlock with a second Imran goal past Qasim four minutes into second half. But Wapda took three minutes to restore parity following a debatable penalty stroke decision by umpire Naeem Akhtar who signalled after defenders tried to stop a Rehan Butt effort.

This time Shabbir had no answer to Sohail's blistering push from the spot.

Naved came close to scoring but his fast hit neither found the target nor it was connected by a diving Shahid Rabbani. Shahid compensated scoring off an indirect drill following a rebound from goalkeeper after Shabbir again blocked Sohail in the 45th minute.

Imran, who scored a hat trick against Allied Bank in his side's 4-2 quarterfinal victory on Thursday, came to rescue the bankers, conjuring up his third and completing his hat trick in the 47th minute.

While Imran returned without success after a save by Qasim in the 48th minute, Sohail attack was once again repulsed by a gallant Shabbir in the 51st minute.

Naeem's 56th-minute match-winning goal after being set up by Adnan Zakir gave the match a dramatic end.

Umpire Iftikhar Takreem was lenient when he showed NBP's Adnan Maqsood a green card after the player lost his temper and even pulled hockey stick of Wapda's Shabbir Hussain in the closing stages of the game.

Mohammad Asim's 6th-minute goal gave PIA a 1-0 lead, while PTCL got even after 60 seconds with an Ahktar attempt past PIA goalkeeper Ahmad Alam. PTCL got their second when Akhtar got his double in the 21st minute.

Sunday's fixtures:

Final: NBP v PTCL at 4.00pm.

3rd position playoff: Wapda v PIA at 1.30pm.

9th and 10th position playoff: SSGC v Army.