KARACHI: Lady Luck smiled on formidable PIA when they overcome Wapda 5-4 on penalty strokes sudden death after being tied two-all in regulation time to retain their title, overall 30th triumph, in a repeat final of the 62nd National Hockey Championship at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium on Sunday.

After a lull in the first two quarters, the airlines twice forged ahead but Wapda retaliated with vigour to draw level thus extending the match to penalty stroke shootout.

The two teams again remained engaged in a three-all draw after wasting two chances apiece and on the sudden death PIA succeeded in converting two chances as against one by Wapda.

National Bank beat Army to secure third position

At the outset, Shafqat Rasool broke the ice in the 31st minute of the third quarter. Two minutes later M. Jaffer neutralised the lead.

The airlines again surged 2-1 when Ihsanullah scored off team’s third penalty corner in the 44th minute. Again the lead was short lived as Umar Bhutta beat PIA custodian Imran Butt three minutes from the final whistle.

Shafqat Rasool, Mohammad Zubair and Amir Shahzad availed their chances on penalty strokes for PIA as M. Ifran and Rana Sohail squandered.

Wapda also scored thrice on first penalty stroke session through M. Irfan, Umer Bhutta and Ejaz Ahmed while Bilal Ahmed and Mohammad Usman faltered.

On sudden death, Shafqat and Zubair did the needful for PIA as against one by Umer Bhutta. Mohammad Irfan threw away his chance.

PIA had won the title last year in similar fashion beating Wapda on penalty stroke shootout 4-2 after playing two-all in stipulation time.

Earlier, former champions National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) whipped Army 4-2 on penalty stroke shootout after one-all draw in play-off to seize third position.

Mohammad Imran surprised the bankers by taking the lead in the 24th minute off a penalty stroke while the bankers equalised through Tosiq Arshad who scored off penalty corner in the dying moments of the match.

Ammad Shakil, Shan Irshad, Dilber Hasan and Bilal Qadir slammed a goal each for bankers off penalty stroke while Army could score twice through Kashif Ali and Noman Khan.

Minister for States and Frontier Regions Division retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch who graced the occasion awarded the trophies and medals to the winners, runners-up and third placed teams along with the PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar.

PIA also earned a winning cheque of Rs3,00,000 while Wapda received runners-up cash award of Rs2,00,000. NBP fetched Rs1,00,000 for being bronze medallist.

Speaking on the occasion, the guest said Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif was supposed to come here but due to prior commitments he asked him to grace the occasion.

He informed that the prime minister has also sent Rs3.0 m on account of the event.

Meanwhile, Ihsanullah, who slammed nine goals in the event, was declared “Top Scorer” of the championship.

The “Best Player of the Tournament” award went to Olympian Rizwan Senior of Army while Abu Bakar of PIA was declared “Emerging Player”.

Imran Butt and Khurram Majeed were jointly declared “Best Goal-keepers” following a tie and shared Rs50,000 amongst themselves.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2016