LAHORE: Mohammad Saleem converted a penalty stroke two minutes from time to help Port Qasim Authority (PQA) salvage a 2-2 draw against the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as three more matches were decided in the 61st National Hockey Championships in Sialkot on Wednesday.

Abu Bakr cashed in on a penalty corner in the 28th to give PQA the lead but goals by Mohammad Arsalan (32nd) and Hassan Ubaid (45th) saw the HEC bounce back strongly until Saleem’s late intervention.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Navy had seven different scorers in their 8-0 thrashing of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Akbar Ali scored twice, with goals in the 32nd and 48th minutes with Atif Ali (eighth), Wajihullah (20th), Mohammad Sabir (37th), M. Asif (38th), Shahbaz Ali (45th) and Ali Sher (57th) being the other scorers.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) outdid Navy both in terms of the number of scorers and goals in their 12-1 thrashing of Sindh.

Kashif Ali scored a hat-trick — his goals coming in the 20th, 33rd and 35th minute with Abubakar adding a brace (44th, 55th).

Shafqat Rasool (ninth), Awais-ur-Rehman (10th), Azfar Yaqoob (22nd), Ihsanullah (39th), Rana Sohail (50th), Nohaiz Malik (59th) and Ammad Butt (60th) were the other scorers.

Sindh’s only goal came through Shujaat Ali — by the time they were 4-0 down — who converted a penalty stoke in the 25th.

Thursday’s fixtures: Sindh v Railways, NBP v Islamabad; KPK v Wapda.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2015