Habib Metro, ABL triumphantin Samba Polo

LAHORE: Habib Metro Lions/Master Paints and Allied Bank Limited (ABL) emerged as winners of the eighth day of the Samba Bank Lahore Open Polo Championship 2017 after registering contrastive victories against their respective opponents here at the Lahore Polo Club (LPC) ground on Tuesday.

Helped by Hamza Mawaz Khan, Habib Metro Lions carved out thrashing 11-4 victory against Diamond Paints. Hamza Mawaz emerged as the top scorer from the winning side with his fabulous five goals while Aun Rizvi and Edward Banner also displayed quality polo and contributed three goals each in their team’s triumph. From the losing side, Eulogio Celestino hammered a hat-trick and Mir Huzaifa struck one. The first chukker of the match was evenly poised as two goals each were scored by both the teams. Hamza continued his good form in the second chukker as well and pumped in two more for Habib Metro Lions while he was ably assisted by Aun Rizvi banged in a brilliant brace to give their team 6-2 edge while two goals were converted by Diamond Paints which helped them reduce the margin to 6-4. Habib Metro Lions then dominated the next two chukkers fully as they fired two goals in the third chukker and three in the fourth chukker to finish the match having 11-4 lead. Geoffredo and Luis Mighal Duggan supervised the match as field umpires.

The second encounter of the day proved to be a thrilling one as Allied Bank scored a narrow 6-5 win against Barry’s. From Allied Bank, Raja Arslan Najeeb played superbly and slammed in four goals while the remaining two came from Saqib Khan Khakwani. From Barry’s, Hernan Pieres scored three goals and Raja Samiullah thwarted two goals. It was a closely-contested match where both the teams fought for each and every goal and but it were Allied Bank who took healthy 5-2 lead till the end of the third chukker. They also pumped in one more to stretch their lead to 6-2. Barry’s though bounced back in the great style in the fourth and last chukker by hammering a hat-trick but it couldn’t help them score victory. Ahmed Nawaz Tiwana and Hissam Ali Hyder were the field umpires. On Wednesday two matches will be decided. Army will take on Guard Group in the first encounter of the day at 2.00 pm while Black Horse Paints will face Newage in the second match at 3.00 pm.