LAHORE, Jan 28 A goal each from Olympian Shafqat Rasool and Kashif Ali helped defending champions Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) beat Habib Bank Limited (HBL) 2-1 in the final round of the 56th National Hockey Championship at the National Hockey Stadium on Wednesday.

Shafqat gave PIA an early lead when he converted a penalty-corner in the ninth minute. Kashif doubled the lead by also cashing in on a short corner in the 20th minute as the winners led the first half by 2-0.

Both sides launched sporadic raids after resumption but the bankers in the end managed to score the solitary goal through Mohammad Zubair, who converted a penalty-stroke in the 67th minute. A hat-trick by Olympian Kashif Jawad guided Port Qasim Authority (PQA) to a 6-2 win against Railways after leading the first half 2-1.

Kashif was on song after Shahzad Hanif put the winners 1-0 ahead in the 15th minute, converting a penalty-corner. He opened his account with a 17th minute strike to make it 2-0. Railways' Hafiz Sohail reduced the margin in the 29th minute, crowning a field attempt to make the score 2-1 at halftime.

Sohail fired his second in the 36th minute to make it 2-2 soon after resumption.

But PQA dominated thereon. First Kashif completed his hat-trick, scoring back-to-back field goals in the 43rd and 44th minutes. Meanwhile, Malik Shakeel hit a goal in the 50th minute and Shahzad banged home with his second goal in the 55th minute to complete the tally.

In the tray championship, PTV defeated Sindh 3-0 with Waqas (fifth min), Fayyaz (seventh min) and Waqar Butt (58th min) as the scorers.

Steel Mills defeated Police 2-1. M. Imran (26th min) and Ishtiaq Ahmad (68th min) sounded the board for the winners. Rana Omer (66th min) struck for the losing side.

PAF crushed Capital Territories (CT) 10-1. Imran Hafeez (24th min), Zeeshan Ali (28th and 46th mins), Kashif Yaqoob (32nd, 51st and 68th mins), Saeed Shah (43rd and 58th mins), Qurban Ali (57th min), Haroon Khan (69th min) were the scorers. For CT, Sohail scored in the 24th minute.

KESC drafted a 3-1 win against Balochistan. A. Qayyum Dogar (31st min), Irfan Khan (44th min) and Amir Iqbal (54th min) scored for the winners. Balochistan scored through M. Saleem in the 57th minute.