March 25, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1428

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KARACHI, March 24: Two-goal Mohammad Afzal rescued Pakistan Army with a first-half match-winner in a close 3-2 victory over a battling Hyderabad to reach last eight of the national hockey championship at Hockey Club of Pakistan on Saturday.

Hyderabad took a confident start against the soldiers with a goal in the third minute through Kashif Saeed.

After going 1-0 down, Army recovered in the 17th minute to equalise with a Mohammad Saleem goal before grabbing the lead through Afzal who struck his first in the 23rd minute.

But Hyderabad had another shock for the soldiers when the resilient side from Sindh pulled the leveller as team captain Rizwan Mughal found the target just five minutes later.

Army must have heaved a sigh of relief when Afzal came into action to complete his double just two minutes before halftime whistle.

Steel Mills, who gave Wapda on Friday a tough time before losing 3-4, faced some resistance against Sargodha who lost 2-4.

Steel Mills opened the account when Mohammad Sarfaraz swept home neatly in the 24th minute. A move from the midfield ended on Yasin Anwar squaring a perfect pass for Sheikh Fayyaz who made no mistake in slotting home the second in the 31st minute.

Sarfaraz might have made it 3-0 a minute before halftime, but wasted a sitter when his reverse hit missed the target.

Kashif Ali, however, banged in the third with a penalty corner conversion second before the halftime whistle.

Looking for the opening goal since long, Sargodha finally opened the scoring seven minutes into second period with a low penalty corner push by Shakeel Ahmad past Steel Mills goalkeeper Farhan Asif.

Steel Mills came close to score their fourth but Imran Malik’s hit was well stopped by Sargodha defender Mohammad Babar in the 45th minute. The winners again missed a promising opening when Mohammad Bilal failed to connect a long ball.

Steel Mills hammered home their fourth when Kashif netted his second on a 65th-minute penalty corner.

Still mounting pressure, Sargodha pressed for their second goal which they netted on a direct try short corner effort by Adeel Akram two minutes before final whistle.

Two-goal Shabbir Ahmad helped star-studded SSGC outplay Pakistan Navy 4-1 at UBL Sports Complex.

Former Pakistan penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas netted the first for the winners in the 19th minute before Shabbir Ahmad doubled the lead five minutes before the lemons break.

The sailors got the consolation goal through Mohammad Usman in the 48th minute, while Shabbir found the cage for his second in the 61st minute, and Sajjad Anwar completed the tally.

Four-goal Shahbaz Ali scored a brilliant hat-trick in Habib Bank’s (HBL) thumping 7-0 victory over Abbottabad which saw bankers reach last eight.

Apart from Shahbaz who scored in the 44th, 51st, 57th and 69th minutes, others scorers were Rashid Imran (39th minute), Qavi Khan (42nd minute), and Khurram Shahzad (67th minute).

Asif Michael struck twice to help Wapda reached quarter-finals after a facile 3-1 win over Quetta.

Mohammad Muddasir netted the first for Wapda in the 26th minute before Asif found the target a minute into first half.

Quetta got consolation through a penalty stroke by Naeemuddin in the 40th minute, while Asif wrapped-up the proceedings with a short corner conversion in the 56th minute.

Sunday’s fixtures:

Pakistan Navy v Karachi at UBL at 4.00pm; SSGC v Rawalpindi at HCP at 2.00pm; PIA v NBP at HCP 4.00pm.