LAHORE: PIA fought tooth and nail against the National Bank of Pakistan to win the action-packed final 4-3 on shootout in the 63rd National Inter-departmental Hockey Championship at the National Hockey Stadium here on Wednesday.

PIA, by earning this victory, besides defending the title also completed the hat-trick of clinching the national crown for departments.

The teams were locked in 0-0 stalemate as the stipulated time of 60 minutes ended. Subsequently, the winners were decided on shootout.

The shootout phase was as exciting and close as the stipulated time as PIA scored through Haseem Khan, Mohammad Zubair, Shafqat Rasool and Kashif Ali. Arslan, Bilal and Dilber struck goals for the NBP.

After NBP started the shootout with blunders, missing the first two attempts, PIA made full use of it to take a 2-0 lead.

There came yet another bout of excitement as NBP converted the remaining three attempts on goal while PIA missed on the fourth attempt.

Kashif Ali then stepped up for a successful try on the final attempt from his PIA team who eventually won the hard-fought match.

PIA captain Mohammad Irfan received the winners’ trophy from Punjab Minister of Sports Jahangir Khanzada as Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana could not reach the venue, most probably due to traffic jam in the city due to some rallies. The traffic jam also forced the PHF to delay the start of the final by almost an hour.

Police’s brilliant forward Sharjeel, who registered three hat-tricks in the tournament, was declared the best emerging player of the event.

Earlier in the final, PIA in the very early stage made a couple of good moves that earned them two penalty corners in succession but they failed to convert any of those due to a rock-solid NBP goalkeeper Mazhar Abbas.

PIA forwards continued to attack NBP in the circle but could not send the ball into the cage.

On the other hand, NBP strikers seldom came close to PIA goalpost as the first half ended.

In the second half, NBP made their presence felt as the young team comprising several Pakistan U-21 players started aggressively, but failed to score.

NBP in the 36th minute also missed their first penalty-corner when Abu Bakr’s forceful and well-directed push was brilliantly saved by PIA goalkeeper Imran Butt.

As the time passed, it caused frustration among the players as some of them committed fouls as a result of which PIA’s Shafqat Rasool in the 37th minute and Atiq of NBP in the dying minutes were shown yellow cards.

The fitter-looking NBP came close to taking lead in the last quarter, getting a couple of opportunities to score field goals but again Imran Butt denied them any success.

Earlier, SSGC further frustrated Wapda, who were among the favourites for the final before the start of the event, to win the third-place match.

The solitary goal by Rana Sohail in the 53rd minute led SSGC to victory.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2017