Mari Petroleum Azadi Hockey Cup: Air Force and National Bank win, Sui Southern Gas and Punjab defeated, Air Force beat Punjab 1-5, Air Force’s Rizwan Ali, National Bank’s Dilbar Hussain and Sui Southern Gas K Rana Sohail named Man of the Match. The thorny match between National Bank and Sui Southern Gas kept the hearts of hockey fans warm. National Bank defeated Sui Southern Gas by 3-4 goals.
According to details, two more matches were decided on the third day of the Mari Petroleum Azadi Hockey Cup under the supervision of the Mari Petroleum Sports Department under the supervision of the Pakistan Hockey Federation. Eight leading teams of the Pakistan Hockey Federation including Pakistan Wapda, National Bank, Sui are participating in the event which is being held at Mari Astroturf Hockey Stadium Ayub Park Rawalpindi under the auspices of Army Heritage Foundation from August 8 to 15. Teams from Southern Gas, Pakistan Navy, Mari Petroleum, Pakistan Air Force, Punjab and Pakistan Army.
The first match was played between the teams of Pakistan Air Force and Punjab which was won by Pakistan Air Force 1-5. Rizwan Ali, a promising drag-flicker from PAF, scored a hat trick with three brilliant goals on penalty corners while Sufyan Khan and Abdul Rehman scored one goal each. Bilal Aslam scored the only goal for Punjab. The special guest of this match was Saeed Khan International, the coach and former head coach and manager of the 1994 World Cup, who presented the Man of the Match award to Air Force player Rizwan Ali. Rizwan Ali was given a hockey stick by King Khan Dubai.
The second interesting and thrilling match was played between National Bank and Sui Southern Gas which National Bank won by 3-4 goals after a brilliant contest. Dilbar, Ali Hassan, Junaid Manzoor and Arsalan Qadir scored goals for National Bank while Sohail Riaz scored two brilliant goals and Abbas Haider scored one goal for Sui Southern Gas. The special guest of this match was former Secretary DHA Rawalpindi and CEO, SIR Builders Raja Shahid Iqbal. The distinguished guest was introduced to the players and team officials. At the end of the match, the Man of the Match award was jointly distributed among the players of both teams. National Bank player Dilbar Hussain and Sui Southern Gas player Rana Sohail were declared man of the match.
Mari Petroleum announced the biggest prizes in the history of Pakistan Hockey Domestic Events. Each player of the final winning team will be given 100cc motorcycle and each player of the runner-up team will be given 70cc motorcycle. Muhammad Shafiq Bhatti and Muhammad Yaseen have been posted. Umpires Manager Rashid Mahmood Butt and Assistant Umpires Manager Dilawar Bhatti are performing their duties.
