RAWALPINDI: Quick-fire goals helped National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) clinch the inaugural Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Challenge Hockey Cup when they defeated Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) 2-0 at the Army Hockey Stadium here on Sunday.

With Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif in attendance as the chief guest, goals in by Tousiq Ahmed and Shan Ali settled the contest in the first quarter and sealed the title for the bankers.

PIA went into the game as hot favourites having seven national team players in their ranks but NBP’s aggressive approach paid dividends in the seventh minute when Tousiq converted a penalty corner and six minutes later, Shan doubled their advantage with a field goal.

The bankers’ quick start deflated PIA who tried to hit back but failed to convert their only penalty corner of the first quarter — the first of seven they would get during the game.

NBP were keen on protecting their lead and thwarted three penalty corners earned by PIA in the second quarter while keeping them at bay with another two in the penultimate 15 minutes.

Those misses saw PIA lose hope of coming back into the game and NBP held on bravely to close out the game for their celebrations to begin.

The Army chief distributed prizes and medals amongst the players and vowed full support for the game.

“High time we restore our lost glory in sports specially our national game… will support endeavour to revive our identity as a sporting nation,” DG ISPR, in his tweet, quoted Army Chief as saying while watching the final.

NBP’s victory saw them being presented a glittering trophy along with a cheque of Rs1 million while PIA were given Rs700,000. Third-placed Army received Rs500,000.

Army’s Rizwan Senior was named Best Player while his team-mate Mohammad Imran took the Best Scorer award with nine goals.

According to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), the Army chief appreciated the PHF president Akhtar Rasool Chaudhry and secretary General Rana Mujahid Ali for making all out efforts to revive Pakistan’s lost glory in the sport.

Published in Dawn February 2nd , 2015

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