Police, PAF, HBL, Army clinch victories

ISLAMABAD – Police, Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and Army clinched victories in the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Gold Cup Hockey Tournament by thrashing their respective challengers here at Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium, Pakistan Sports Complex.
Eight teams including PIA, Port Qasim, NBP, PTV, WAPDA, Army, PAF and HBL moved into the quarterfinals phase of the tournament, which will be started from Thursday (tomorrow) at same venue. However, Tuesday all the teams cleared their position in their respective groups.
Police outplayed hosts Islamabad 7-5 in the first fixture of the day. Islamabad, who lost their pervious two match with big margin (against Army 11-0) and WAPDA (9-0), were far better in their last pool match. But, Waqas Zafar was looking free to move in the field, who struck four goals to achieve 5th hat trick of the tournament.
Police were leading 4-3 at water interval. Tasawr Khan, Atif Baig and Farzand Ali scored each one goal for the winners. Muhammad Arshad netted the ball twice while Najbullah, Rehan and Sohail once for Islamabad to make the score-line 5-7 after completing 70 minutes game.
Meanwhile, PAF had to toil hard to overcome Punjab in the second match of the day. The solitary goal of the match scored by Muhammad Imran in the 56th minutes of the match. At half way the score was 0-0, as the both teams wasted many chances to earn lead. After single goal win catapulted the winners on top in Group D.