LAHORE, Dec 24 National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Pakistan Steel Mills, Army, Port Qasim Authority (PQA) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are first to make it to the last eight in the NBP Gold Cup hockey tournament as six more matches were played on day three here at National Hockey Stadium on Wednesday.
Three-goal Haseem Khan steered NBP to an overwhelming 7-0 win against Steel Mills, after leading the first half 3-0. But despite losing, the steel-men entered the quarter-final.
After international Imran Warsi cashed in on a penalty corner in the sixth minute to open NBP's account. Three minutes later, another international Tariq Aziz made it 2-0. Haseem struck his first in the 17th minute as NBP led the first half with a comfortable lead.
After resumption, the bankers imposed further pressure as their strikers moved in unison to penetrate their defense into pieces. The losers could only resist till the 60th minute but all went out of their control after that. They pumped in four goals in 10 minutes to carve out a big win.
The thrilling show started when Haseem fired his second goal in the 61st minute for a 4-0 lead. After two minutes, Akhtar Ali found the cage, before Shakeel Abbasi struck in the 68th minute. Haseem completed his tally with a goal in the 69th minute to seal the fate of the match.
Two-goal Shabbir Khan helped PQA oust Wapda 2-1 after being locked at 1-1 at interval.
After Shabbir drew first blood with a field goal in the 15th minute, Pakistan's top player Rehan Butt restored parity just one minute before interval.
But Shabbir's goal in the 53rd minute proved decisive, as the strong Wapda wasted all of their eight penalty-corners.
In other matches, Army defeated Sindh 7-0, after gaining a 3-0 edge in the first half. Azhar Iqbal banged home twice in the 45th and 67th minutes, while Mohammad Arshad, Kashif, Mohammad Afzal, Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Ramzan chipped in one each in 16th, 26th, 35th, 50th and 66th minutes, respectively.
Pakistan Railways beat Punjab 3-1. The score at the end of the first half was 3-0. Jameel Khan, M. Rohan and Akbar Ali struck for Railways in the second, 13th and 30th minutes, respectively, while the only goal from Punjab came from Bilal Bashir in the 50th minute.
PIA beat Balochistan 4-2 after gaining a 2-0 lead in the first half. Waqas Akbar of PIA contributed two goals in the eighth and 24th minutes, while Mohammad Zubair moved the scoreboard in the 49th and 50th minutes. For the losing side, Jamal and Wasif netted one goal each in 11th and 57th minutes.
The match between Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and PAF ended in a 2-2 draw. At the end of the first half, the airmen were leading by 2-1. Saeed Shah and Imran Hafeez were the scorers for the airmen while Nasir Shahzad and Saleem Khalid scored for the bankers.
