KARACHI, Dec 5: Habib Bank Limited (HBL) lifted the NBP Junior Hockey Cup after beating the official sponsors 4-2 in the final played under floodlights at the Hockey club of Pakistan (HCP) on Friday evening.

The match also watched by Federal Minister for sports Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Gilani, the chief guest on the occasion, and Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) President Qasim Zia, who had specially flown in from Lahore for the purpose, saw NBP scoring first through a penalty stroke, converted by fullback Mohammad Atiq in the 14th minute.

Parity was restored by HBL off a penalty corner in the 20th minute through their fullback Umer Bhutta. Then in the 25th minute HBL took the lead when their captain right-out Adeel Hussain made the score 2-1, which remained so at halftime.

HBL’s fullback Rana Zubair scored off a penalty corner to put NBP under more pressure in the 38th minute.

NBP missed several good chances including a penalty corner until their inside-left Mohammad Imran scored a field goal in the 48th minute to make the score 3-2.

The 55th minute saw HBL getting another penalty corner which fullback Umer Bhutta converted again.

HBL’s captain Adeel Hussain accepted the winners trophy and cheque for Rs30,000 while Haseem Khan received the runners-up trophy along with a Rs20,000 cheque. The Rs5,000 Man of the Match prize went to HBL’s Umer Bhutta.

The other individual prizes were taken by NBP’s captain and centre-forward Haseem Khan who was declared the Man of the Tournament (Rs10,000), HBL’s Azlan Khan (Rs5,000) for being the highest scorer with 13 goals and HBL’s goalkeeper Basharat (Rs5,000) for his brilliant saves.