By Ijaz Chaudhry
Captains of Guangdong & Pakistan Customs exchanging Souvenirs
Lahore: Guangdong Province is the reigning national hockey champion of China. The province's players have the highest representation in China's national and age group teams. Currently on a tour of Pakistan, Guangdong is playing matches in different cities. Their fourth match was against Pakistan Customs at the hockey arena of Lahore's Jinnah Sports Complex.
Incidentally, Customs are Pakistan's champions in all the tiers: National, Under 21 and Under 18.
Hence, an exciting match was on the cards. Customs included no less than 10 boys who learned their craft at the Dar Hockey Academy, Lahore.
The head coach of customs Danish Kaleem remained the trainer of Dar HA for a long time.
While Pakistan's former international Mazhar Abbas is a member of Guangdong's coaching team.
The match was played under the floodlights in front of a sizeable crowd including World Cup winners Manzoorul Hassan, Lt Col (retd) Saeed Khan & Tahir Zaman, and Olympic gold medallist Tauqeer Dar (the President of Dar Hockey Academy).
The chief guest was the Chief Collector Customs, Asif Abbas. Other distingushed guests included CEO LESCO, Ramzan Butt and President Dar Hockey Club, Mohammad Aamer.
The match between the two national champions lived up to the billing.
It was an up and down stuff. Customs went ahead in the last minute of the first quarter when Bilal Aslam's high flick off the first penalty corner found the left upper corner. With three minutes left in the second quarter, the visitors equalised also through a PC. Qui Wenxuan sounded the board with a well placed hit.
In the 39th minute, Customs again went ahead after a combined move saw Shahzaib Khan applying the finishing touch from a close range. Guangdong obtained three PCs in a quick succession but couldn't restore parity.
Customs made it 3-1 in the 51st minute, again through a PC conversion by Bilal Aslam, with the ball deflecting into the goal off goalkeeper's pads.
The best goal of the evening came in the last minute. Guangdong's captain Chao Jieming found the right corner of the target with a top of the circle reverse angular flat hit. But it was too little, too late for the visiting side.
After the match, souvenirs and gifts were distributed among the players and the team officials.
Ijaz Chaudhry writes on hockey & other sports. For more about him & his work, visit http://www.sportscorrespondent.info