LAHORE: ASC Polo Team narrowly defeated Olympia/Technimen by 6-5 in a thrilling encounter of the National Open Polo Championship for Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup 2020 played at Lahore Polo Club ground.
Eulogio Celestino and Raja Samiullah played vital role in ASC’s tremendous triumph as they hammered a hat-trick each. From Olympia/Technimen, Abdul Rehman Monnoo thrashed in three goals while Hissam Ali Hyder banged in a brace.
Both the teams started the crucial match well against each other and launched a series of attacks on each other’s goals. After a tough battle, Olympia/Technimen succeeded in opening their account through Abdul Rehman, who fired in a field goal to provide his side 1-0 lead, which could not last long, as ASC fought back well and fired in a field goal through Eulogio Celestino to draw the score at 1-all.
The second chukker was evenly poised as both the sides matched fire-with-fire till the end of the chukker and succeeded in converting two goals each. Hissam and Abdul Rehman struck one goal each for Olympia/Technimen while the contribution from ASC came from Raja Samiullah, who thrashed in two back-to-back goals as the score at the end of the second chukker was 3-all.
The only goal of the third chukker came from Olympia/Technimen, when Abdul Rehman fired in a field goal to give his team 4-3 edge. The fourth chukker was also contested very well, where a tough battle was witnessed between both the sides and both managed to score one goal each. First Hissam slammed in a field goal for Olympia/Technimen to enhance their lead to 5-3 and then Raja Samiullah converted a 40-yard penalty successfully to reduce the margin to 5-4 just before the end of the fourth chukker.
ASC played better polo in the fifth chukker and smashed in the only goal of the chukker through Eulogio Celestino, who fired in a fabulous field goal to equalise the score at 5-all. After that, both the teams tried hard to score more and get a match-winning lead but both failed to convert a single more goal and the fifth chukker ended at 5-all.
The match was then decided on the sudden death chukker, where ASC’s Eulogio Celestino malletod the match-winning goal, thus steered his side to a thrilling 6-5 victory.
Nicholas Scortichini and Martin Fewster supervised the match as field umpires while Raja Temur Nadeem acted as match referee.
