Black Horse, Newage victorious in Shoe Planet Polo

LAHORE: Black Horse Paints/Artema Medical and Newage Wednesday emerged as winners in the Shoe Planet Polo Cup 2017 being played here at the Lahore Polo Club (LPC) ground.
In the two-chukker first match of the day played among Black Horse Paints/Artema Medical, Dawood Group and Sakuf under American system. Black Horse Paints first defeated Dawood Group 3-1, who outclassed Sakuf 5-1, while Black Horse Paints routed Sakuf 4-0 to emerge as winners and qualified for the next round.
The second encounter of the day saw joint effort of Adnan Jalil Azam and Shah Shamyl Alam helped Newage outclass Diamond Paints 10-4½. Both Adnan and Shamyl hammered in a hat-trick apiece in their team’s triumph while Alman Jalil Azam (two goals) and Ahmed Zubair Butt (two goals) completed the tally. From Diamond Paints, which had half goal handicap advantage, Mir Huzaifa struck two goals while Mir Shoaib Ahmad and Mian Iftikhar Hussain contributed with one goal apiece.
The first chukker of the match was evenly poised as one goal each was scored by both the sides. Ahmed Zubair and Adnan Jalil hit one goal each from Newage, while Mir Huzaifa converted both from Diamond Paints. Newage then changed their gears and started playing aggressive game which paid dividend and they succeeded in scoring two more field goals to take 4-2 lead. Newage maintained their supremacy in the third chukker as well and pumped in three more goals to stretch their lead to 7-2.
Diamond Paints though succeeded in staging a comeback by hitting two field goals through Mir Shoaib and Mian Hussain Iftikhar to reduce the deficit to 7-4, but it was all they could get from the match as Newage banged in three more goals – one each by Alman, Shamyl and Ahmed – to take unassailable 10-4 lead, which remained intact till the final whistle was blown. Ahmed Ali Tiwana and Taimur Mawaz Khan supervised the match field umpires.