KARACHI: Two matches ended in stalemates in the Essa Lab Quaid-i-Azam five-a-side under-19 hockey tournament which resumed at the Islahuddin-Dr M. A. Shah Academy on Sunday after a day’s rest.

Islahuddin Siddiqui 5’s and Shahnaz Sheikh 5’s shared points after playing a 5-5 draw in the first match.

Essa Khan’s three goals in 18th, 25th and 36th minutes went in vain after Mohib Khan put Islahuddin 5’s in front in the eighth minute and M. Saqlain consolidated the lead in the 12th minute.

Ali Anwer (13th), Shoaib Shabbir (27th), M. Abid (30th), Nadeem Razzaq (32nd) and Ahmer Ali (35th) netted one goal apice for Shahnaz Sheikh 5’s.

Both the outfits are trailing on the points table with identical records of a win and a draw besides two defeats.

The next match saw Akhtar Rasool 5’s and Hasan Sardar 5’s engaged in a 6-6 draw.

Faizan Alvi (4th, 35th), Zubair (25th, 34th), Mohsin Khan (eighth) and Roman (28th) earned the scoring honours for Akhtar Rasool 5’s.

M. Anees struck four goals, the last three in a span of seven minutes —13th, 30th, 35th, 37th — while Ibrahim and Abdullah netted once in the sixth and 17th minutes for Hasan Sardar 5’s.

Akhtar Rasool 5’s have two wins, a draw and a defeat so far while Hasan Sardar 5’s have one win, a drawn game and two defeats to their credit.

In the third and last match of the day, Manzoor Hussain Jr 5’s carved out 5-2 victory over Shahbaz Ahmed 5’s.

Ilyas (29th and 33rd) and Arshad (seventh and 18th) shared four goals amongst themselves while Rehan Butt chipped in the fifth in 26th minute for winners.

Mohammad Ammar and Mohammad Yasir slammed one goal apiece for the losers in the 24th and 32nd minute respectively.

The league matches conclude on Monday and the curtain falls on the event the following day with top two teams on the points table facing each other in the title clash. The final will be preceded by playoff for the 3rd-4th position and classification match for the 5th-6th position.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017