Sana’s hat-trick helps Wapda retain National Women’s Hockey title
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LAHORE: A hat-trick by Sana Allahditta enabled Wapda, the long standing national champions, retain the title at the 30th National Women Hockey Championships after beating Punjab Colours 4-0 in the final at the National Hockey Stadium here on Monday.
Comprising almost entirely of international players, Wapda were the favourites after having won all their matches with ease including an overwhelming 5-0 victory over Punjab Colours in the pool game.
However, it was the Punjab side which made the early inroads and had a couple of chances in the early minutes. The defending champions then settled down and earned their first penalty corner and Pakistan’s ace short-corner expert Ishrat Abbas sounded the board with her trademark angular flat hit.
Later in the first quarter both the sides wasted a penalty corner each.
The second quarter saw almost complete domination of Wapda and the ball mostly remained in the opponents’ half. No less than six chances were squandered by them as they failed to beat alert goalkeeper Tahira under the bar.
After the half time, Wapda came back strongly to add three successive goals. First Sana put it in from a very close range and in the dying minutes of the third quarter, little Sana again scored twice to complete her hat trick.
First she cashed in on a short-corner and then struck a field goal to make it 4-0.
Despite losing the final, Punjab Colours proved as only one side of the provincial teams, which made the final.
Earlier, the playoff for the third position saw an exciting game between Army and HEC. Army won 3-2 HEC twice came from behind to equalise but couldn’t neutralise army’s third goal.
Hammra Latif of Wapda was declared as player of the tournament while Tahira Islam of Punjab earned the prize of best goalkeeper of the tournament.
Wapda received a cash prize of Rs50,000 while Punjab Colours pocketed Rs25,000.
Besides it Director General Sports Board Punjab Nadeem Sarwar also gave Rs50,000 to the Punjab side and Rs25,000 to Wapda. In addition, chief guest Air Vice Marshal Irfan Ahmad also announced a cash prize of Rs50,000 and Rs25,000 for the winners and runners-up.
Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018
