August 29, 2008	Friday	Sha’aban 26, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 28: Sindh beat defending champions Police by one goal to claim the 8th National Men’s Netball Championship 2008 title after a grueling contest that had to go into extra time twice here at the City Sports Complex on Thursday evening.

The final saw Sindh’s Goal Attack (GA) Awais scoring first for his side, equaled almost immediately by Police. Scoring became a constant tug of war with one side getting ahead and the other leveling soon after. They were neck and neck till the conclusion of the first quarter when Police at nine goals gained a two-goal lead over Sindh, who were on seven then.

Not much had changed at the end of the second quarter as well with Police on 17 and Sindh on 16.

But the third quarter saw Police at 27 gaining the lead by four, leaving Sindh behind at 23. Still Sindh kept fighting for ball possession with Awais, their cool gum-chewing GA with the blue and white bandana, all over the place while providing good backup to their captain and centre Samad Masood.

The fourth quarter went into Sindh’s favour when Samad and Mohammad Ali, both teams’ centres, collided just outside Police’s D as a result of which chief referee Maqbool Ahmed awarded a penalty shoot to Sindh which GA Awais promptly utilised.

The next instant, they levelled with Police for the first time in the match and then they were leading too but only for a minute as Police in hot pursuit levelled just moments before the final whistle. Both teams were on 31-31 then.

Two seven-minute halves in the hope of a decision also went to waste when Sindh although they had gained a five-goal lead of 38-33 in the first extra time session, looked exhausted in the second in order to let Police equal once again. Both sides were 40-40 at the end of extra time.

Another session with no time limit in favour of which ever team scored two successive goals commenced. Police’s GS Wahid scored first followed by Sindh’s goal. And just when it was beginning to dawn on everyone that the match would go on forever, Sindh scored their second, making the final score line 42-41.

GA Awais made 35 and GS Shaz Ghori got in seven. For Police, GA Zahid scored 27 and the tallest player of the tournament Wahid contributed 14.

Earlier, the third position match between Wapda and Punjab was won by Wapda 47-42. GS Furqan scored 27 for Wapda with assistance from GA Akhtar who got in 20. GA Zubair (25) and GS Shahzad (17) scored for Punjab.

The Pakistan Netball Federation (PNF) championship held in collaboration with Pakistan Sports Trust (PST), Sindh Netball Association (SNA) and CDGK was supervised by referees Maqbool Ahmed (chief referee), Anwar Ahmed, Khalid Pervaiz, Khurram, Rizwan Bashir, Shahid Amin, Rashid and Nadeem.