KARACHI, Sept 29: Fancied Wapda, the National Games gold medallist and title holders, Railways, stamped their authority when they marched into the final of the 21st National women’s hockey championship by winning pre-finals at the Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) Stadium on Thursday.

Wapda scored a goal in each half to inflict a 2-0 defeat on Lahore Colours while Railways chalked up a convincing 3-0 victory against Karachi Colours.

The final between Wapda and Railways will be played on Saturday at 2.30 pm.

Lahore Colours takes on Karachi Colours for the third position play-off the same morning at 10.00am.

This will be the second time that Wapda and Railways will come face to face in any women’s hockey final, the first being at the National Games last year where the former triumphed.

Wapda took time to settle down and were kept at distance for most of the time by their opponent’s.

They, however, shot into 1-0 lead as Leena Afroze’s efforts bore fruitful results in 33rd minute.

Continuing their onslaughts, Wapda consolidated their lead seven minutes from the final whistle through Azra Nasir.

Lahore Colours, on the other hand, suffered set back twice when their players Sumaira and Raziz Malik had to leave the field after suffering from severe cramps.

In the second match, Railways continued their winning run giving no room to hosts Karachi Colours to do any damage.

They forged ahead in 3rd minute when Salma beat custodian Sara. Nida Bashir made it 2-0 midway through the first half.

The penalty corner conversion rate of Railways was extremely poor as they utilized only one of the total 11 they had earned during the match.

Iram Bokhari fired home her team’s third goal off sixth penalty corner in 64th minute to seal the fate.