FG Team stun high-flying Artema in Rafi Polo

LAHORE: FG Polo Team came from behind to stun high-flying Artema Medical by a narrow margin of 9-8 in the opening match of the Lt Gen Shah Rafi Alam Memorial Polo Cup sponsored by Al-Khair Group here at Lahore Polo Club Ground on Tuesday.

Eulogio Celestino and Mir Huzaifa Ahmed were the heroes of the day as the former through his outstanding polo skills managed to draw the score for the winning side while the latter smashed in match-winning goal for the winning side to steer FG Polo Team to an inspiring victory. Eulogio remained top scroer for FG team with his fabulous four goals while Mir Huzaifa hammered an impressive hat-trick and Shah Shamyl Alam and Abbas Mukhtar contributed one goal apiece.

From the losing side, sensational Hamza Mawaz Khan slammed in fantastic five goals and Nicholas Pepper thwarted a hat-trick but their heriocs couldn’t save their team from facing defeat at the hands of FG team. FG struck the opening goal through Shah Shamyl to take 1-0 lead which was soon not on equalized by Artema Medical through Hamza but he also converted one to provide his team 2-1 lead. Just before end of the first chukker, Mir Huzaifa fired in a field goal to square the things at 2-2. Artema Medical stamped their authority in the second chukker by hammering a hat-trick with Nicholas scoring one and Hamza two goals to take 5-2 lead. In the dying moments of the second chukker, Abbas Mukhtar struck a field goal to reduce the deficit to 5-3.

The third chukker was fully dominated by Artema Medical, who never gave a chance to their opponents to score even a single goal. This time, Hamza converted one goal and Nicholas banged in a brace as third chukker ended with Artema Medical having healthy 8-3 lead.

In the fourth and last chukker, no one could expect that FG team could make such a fantabulous and remarkable comeback as they thwarted back-to-back four goals to level the score at 8-8 and no more goal was scored by both the sides till the final whistle was blown. The match entered the sudden death chukker, where the team, which would score first, would be the winner. When both the teams were struggling to score first, Mir Huzaifa came from behind and smashed in a marvelous match-winning goal to guide FG team to a well-deserving victory. Ahmed Zubair Butt and Edward Banner Eve supervised the match as field umpires. In the second match of the day, PBG/Remounts defeated AOS Polo Team by 6-5. From the winning side, Nicholas Maria Ruiz scored a quartet while Lt Col Rab Nawaz Tiwana and Raja Arslan Najeeb hit one goal apiece. From the losing side, Goffredo Cutinelli, Abdul Rehman Monnoo and Hashim Kamal Agha scored one goal each.