LPC LAHORE: Diamond Paints, Barry’s and Master Paints/Rizvi’s chalked out contrastive triumphs in the ongoing Diamond Paints National Open Polo Championship for Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup 2018 at the Lahore Polo Club (LPC) grounds.
Diamond Paints vs past Army
Diamond Paints edged past Army by 8-6 in the first encounter of the day. Macos Araya was top scorer for the winning side as he produced an impressive hat-trick while Mir Huzaifa Ahmed and Mumtaz Abbas Niazi scored a brace each and Eulogio Celestino converted one. From the losing side, Ignasio Negri also struck a hat-trick while Major Omer Minhas banged in a brace and Miguel Luis Duggan hit one, but their efforts couldn’t bear fruit for their team.
Army started the match with a field goal to take 1-0 lead which was soon not only equalized by Diamond Paints, but they also struck one more to take 2-1 lead. The second chukker was evenly poised as both the teams scored two goals each, with Diamond Paints having 4-3 lead. The high-voltage third chukker was also dominated by Diamond Paints, who struck three as compared to Army’s two goals, as the score was 7-5, in favour of Diamond Paints. The winning side added one more goal in their tally to enhance their lead to 8-5 in the fourth chukker while in the fifth and last chukker, Army struck one to reduce the deficit to 8-6.
Barry’s played vs Rijas Aces/PAF
Barry’s played brilliantly against Rijas Aces/PAF and outclassed them by a big margin of 12-4 in the second match of the day. Juan Maria Ruiz (Tito) was hero of the day for Barry’s as he slammed in superb six goals while Nafees Barry, Ramiro Zavaleta and Bilal Haye scored a brace each. From the losing side, Juan Cruz Araya struck a brace while Faisal Shahzad and Deigo Araya hit one goal apiece.
Barry’s fully dominated the first two chukkers as they thwarted two goals in the first chukker and pumped in fabulous five goals in the second chukker to take healthy 7-0 lead. They added one more in the third chukker to further enhance their lead to 8-0 but then Rijas Aces/PAF made a comeback by scoring a brace to make it 8-2 and then added one more in the fourth chukker to further reduce the margin to 8-3. Barry’s converted one more goal to stretch their lead to 9-3.
In the fifth and last chukker, Rijas converted a goal off 30-yad penalty to make it 9-4 but after that it were Barry’s, who prevailed and slammed in three more goals to take insurmountable 12-4 lead, which remained intact till the end and declared Barry’s the ultimate winners.
Master Paints/Rizvi’s vs Newage/BBJ Pipes
Juan Cruz Losada struck six to guide Master Paints/Rizvi’s to a thumping 8-4 victory over Newage/BBJ Pipes in the third and last match of the day. Hamza Mawaz Khan scored the remaining two goals to complete the tally for the victorious team. Salvador Ulloa hammered a hat-trick for the losing side while Ahmed Zubair Butt converted one.
Master Paints/Rizvi’s scored the opening goal which was leveled by Newage/BBJ Pipes but by the close of the first chukker, the winning side converted one more to take 2-1 lead. The second chukker was evenly poised as both the teams hit one goal each with Master Paints/Rizvi’s having 3-2 lead. Newage/BBJ Pipes then scored an equalizer in the beginning of the third chukker to make it 3-3 but after that, both the sides produced one goal each which leveled the score at 4-4. Master Paints/Rizvi’s then dominated the next two chukkers fully and slammed in fabulous four goals to win the match by 8-4.
