ISLAMABAD: Captain Qurat-ul-Ain led from the front as she inspired defending champions Sindh into the final of the Pakistan National Women’s Netball Championship where they will face Pakistan Army.

In a semi-final which was a repeat of last year’s final, Qurat-ul-Ain scored 16 goals on Monday as Sindh dug deep before overcoming Higher Education Commission (HEC) 21-17.

Army had a rather easier time in their last-four clash as they beat Punjab 30-16 with Aishah Dilshad, the second-highest scorer of the tournament after Qurat-ul-Ain, netting 22 times.

In a nail-biting first semi-final, Sindh and HEC were level at 4-4 after the first quarter and 7-7 at the end of the second before Qurat-ul-Ain sparkled in the third to help them go into the final quarter with a 17-13 lead before the final quarter saw both team trade four goals each.

Umama Qadri, Nayab, Yusra Bibi, Hina were Army’s other scorers with HEC’s Sadaf Parveen scoring 10 goals in a losing cause.

Director Army Sports Directorate Brig Ghulam Jilanai was the chief guest of the semi-finals with a few diplomats also in attendance but there was a bit of farce regarding the arrangements by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) as electricity was suspended during the first quarter of the match before being restored after an hour.

“If PSB does not have generators, IESCO should have been informed about the holding of national games,” said Pakistan Netball Federation (PNF) general secretary Mudasir Arian.

The PSB, meanwhile, also didn’t bother to repair dozens of broken chairs at the Hamidi Hall where the championship is being organised.

“These broken chairs paint a bad picture of our country and should be immediately replaced,” said Muhammad Naveed, a spectator.

In the second semi-final, Aishah-inspired Army raced into a 7-2 lead by the end of the first quarter and although they let Punjab off the hook in the second, they still led 13-10.

Army shifted into another gear in the third, scoring 13 times to race into a 27-13 lead before both teams equally shared six goals in the final quarter.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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