February 02, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 23, 1429

PESHAWAR, Feb 1: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Pakistan Steel and Port Qasim secured victories on Friday in the 55th National Hockey Championship’s departmental round at the Lala Ayub Hockey Stadium.

Having the services of national team players Zeeshan Ashraf, Sumair Saleem, Adnan Maqsood, Adnan Zakir, Olympian Mohammad Nadeem ND, the NBP team displayed excellent game to crush PTV 10-0.

Pakistan Steel defeated Navy by a solitary goal.

The ball was mostly confined to mid-field and no worthwhile move was witnessed in the 70-minute play. It was in the 15th minute when Pakistan Steel took the lead through a penalty corner conversion by full-back Mohammad Ishtiaq Ahmed. Navy forwards also made some individual bursts but failed to score any goal as Steel won the match. Haider Rasool and Anwar Hussain supervised the match.

In the third match, Port Qasim defeated PAF 5-3 to confirm its place in the final round. For Port Qasim, Kashif Jawad, Awais Khan, Imran Khan, Samiullah and Mohammad Shakeel scored in the 12th, 23th, 25th, 28th and 61st minutes respectively while for PAF Barkat, Said Shah and full-back Imran scored one goal each in the 3rd, 57th and 68th minutes.

Hidayatullah and Asif Junior supervised the match while Professor Rashid, Master Khan and Tehsinullah acted as field judges.—APP