KARACHI: The ongoing international Nishan-i-Haider 9ners hockey tournament reached the knockout quarter-finals stage at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium on Saturday.

At the time of filing this report, six of the eight teams were decided. They will be joined by two teams from pool A on completion of day’s third match.

L/N M. Mahfooz 9ners and Maj. Rana Shabbir Sharif 9ners notched up convincing victories over their rivals on Saturday. Both the outfits earned four points apiece by winning penalty shootouts and respective match.

Mahmood 9ners carved out 4-2 victory over Capt. Sher Khan 9ners in the shootout. Bilal Qadir, Shah Faisal, Zeeshan Bokhari and Mohsin Sabir cashed their chances while Mohibullah and Nabeel Hussain could only score one goal apiece for the losers.

Fresh from their triumph, Mahfooz 9ners scored a solitary goal win over their rivals, thanks to a first half field goal by Bilal Qadir, that helped their team earn three valuable points.

In the next fixture, Rana Shabbir Sharif 9ners outplayed Mohammad Hussain Janjua 9ners 8-3, 4-1 in the shootout and 4-2 in regulation time.

Nohaiz Malik, Rana Sohail, Amir Ali and Faizan scored one goal each for the winners as only Mohammad Asif could score for the losers in shootout.

Shabbir Sharif 9ners again scored four goals to maintain their ascendency. Rana Sohail, Nohaiz Malik, Mohammad Naved and Junaid Kamal struck one goal each in the regulation time.

A late strike by their opponents enabled them to reduce the deficit as they scored two goals in a span of as many minutes in the dying moments.

M. Asif scored in the 38th minute while Zain Ijaz found the net in the dying moments of the match.

The six outfits who were through to the last eight include Maj. Rana Shabbir Sharif 9ners and Rashid Minhas 9ners (pool B), Maj M. Akram 9ners and L/N M. Mahfooz 9ners (pool C), Hav Lalak Jan 9ners and Naik Saif Ali Janjua 9ners (pool D).

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2017