LAHORE: Seven more matches were decided on the third day of the National Junior Hockey Championship here at the National Hockey Stadium on Saturday.

Wapda emerged as a potential candidate for the title after defeating strong rivals Customs 4-0 with the goals coming from Mohammad Yasir (5th), Ali Bahadur (10th), Hasan Saleem (43rd) and Rana Waheed (51st).

A hat-trick by Rizwan Ali through penalty-corner conversion steered Sui Southern Gas Company to a 4-0 win against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-B. Rizwan scored in 32nd, 37th and 45th minutes while (Babar (17th) chipped in with one goal. Army-B also registered a 4-0 triumph against Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Sajid (28th), Zaheer Ahmad (40th), Haseeb Saib (49th) and Anees Rehman (53rd) were the scorers.

Meanwhile, KP-A stunned Punjab-C 5-1 thanks to a fine hat-trick by Usman (28th, 41st, 50th). Usman Junior also contributed two goals in the 54th and 55th minutes. Taki-ul-Hassan scored the consolation goal for Punjab-C who were favourites ahead of the match.

Gilgit, the most beleaguered team of the event, tasted another big defeat when they were mauled 17-0 by Punjab-D. Four goals by Habib-ur-Rehman (2nd, 32nd, 44th, 55th) and a hat-trick each by Ibrahim (5th, 25th, 56th) and Rehman Ali (6th, 10th, 16th) made the major contribution. Habib-urRehman (39th, 53rd), Usama (39th, 52nd) scored a brace each. Noma (19th), Khubaib (46th) and Ashfaq (57th) were the other scorers.

Punjab-B chalked up a 3-0 win against Balochistan. Mehraj Ali (31st, 41st) and Mohammad Younis (44th) were the scorers. Army-A outclassed Sindh-A 5-0 with Mohammad Usman (30th, 35th), Muzammil Hussain (18th), Shahid Ali (33rd), Mehran Ahmad (59th) scoring the goals.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2019