WAPDA and NBP have moved to the final of the 31st U-21 National Junior Hockey Championship being played here at the National Hockey Stadium. On Friday, both the semi-finals were played with WAPDA beating SSGC and NBP edging aside Punjab Colours. In the first semi-final, WAPDA gained 3-2 win in the extra time. The teams remained locked two-all by the completion of full 70 minutes play forcing them to play in extra time. SSGC was leading the first half but WAPDA came from behind to first level the score and then got the golden goal in the 81st minute of the match. WAPDA’S goal scorers were Mohammad Suleman, field goal in the 66th minute, Asad 68th minute and Mohammad Umair came up with winning hit in a field move in the 81st minute. SSGC’s Waseem Abbas scored the opening goal in the 35th minute on a penalty corner while Hafiz Umer doubled the lead in the 49th minute through a field move. In the second semi-final, NBP moved to the final by 2-1 win over Punjab. Similar to the first semi-final, the second was also played on equal terms when both the teams were one-all at half time. NBP got lucky to get a penalty corner in the 46th minute which got them ahead of the hosts. Punjab got lead in the third minute of the match through their captain Mohammad Mushtaq while NBP got the equaliser from Ahmed Zubair in the 16th minute and Kashif Javed made the win possible in the 46th minute short-corner. Iftikhar Ali Malik, Chairman Guard Group of Companies was the chief guest. The final of the championship will be played on Monday between WAPDA vs NBP National Hockey Stadium, Lahore at 1400 hours.
