The News 

KARACHI: Army skipper Mohammad Imran led from the front and scored two late goals in his team’s stunning 4-3 win against defending champions National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) on Saturday as Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) continued their unbeaten record in the 59th National Hockey Championship here at Hockey Club of Pakistan.

The game started with both sides in aggressive mood, which led to some quick counterattacks, but the bankers drew first blood in the 9th minute courtesy of Umar Bhutta, who notched a hat-trick in the game, but failed to propel his team to victory line.

Army have been pretty adventurous in their game play throughout the event and their heroics paid off when Habib-ur-Rehman put them level on terms in the 23rd minute.

However, NBP restored their one-goal advantage three minutes before half-time through Bhutta’s strike.

The second period turned out to be even more entertaining as Mohammad Kashif equalised five minutes after resumption.

Bhutta was once again the centre of attention as he completed his hat-trick in 44th minute to provide respite to his side.

The game was stretched all over and Army were prodding the ball through flanks as NBP adopted a sit-back strategy, which backfired.

Imran first equalised for Army in the 52nd minute from a penalty corner and then scored the winner on the hour mark in the same style.

The victory pushed Army to the second position with 18 points from seven matches, just one point behind table-toppers PIA, who continued their demolition act by thumping Pakistan Air Force (PAF) 5-2.

Meanwhile, Port Qasim were brought down to earth by SSGC, who registered an easy 4-1 win against them. Port Qasim had flummoxed WAPDA the other day but were not able to repeat their heroics. In another match, Navy won 1-0 against Habib Bank Limited (HBL).