Master Paints and Newage booked berths in the main final of the Maj. Gen. Saeed uz Zaman Memorial Polo Cup 2020 after winning their respective semifinals played here at the JP&CC-Jinnah Polo and Country Club.
Phenomenonal Marcos Panelo played perfect polo to steer Master Paints to a hard-fought 10-8 triumph in the first semifinal. The seven-goal haul of Marcos Panelo made him the best player of the match while Farooq Amin Sufi also exhibited excellent mallet and horse work and contributed with a brace in his team’s tally and Raja Jalal Arslan scored one goal. Barry’s though matched fire-with-fire till the end yet they could not produce some match-winning strokes, so lost the crucial match. Major contributions from Barry’s came from Hamza Mawaz Khan (4 goals) and Ernesto Oscar Trotz (4 goals), but their efforts proved futile in the end.
The second semifinal proved to be a closely-contested encounter where Newage narrowly defeated FG Polo/Diamond Paints by 7 1/2-6. Both the teams fought well against each other and put in their best efforts to win the match but in the end, it were Newage who succeeded in taking a healthy lead in third chukker and maintained their supremacy in the fourth and last one as well to win the semifinal by 7 1/2-6. High-flying Edward Banner Eve once again played a key role in his team’s triumph by converting a hat-trick of goals while he was ably assisted by his teammate promising Syed Turab Rizvi (,2 goals), Syed Aun Rizvi (one goal) and Alman Jalil Azam (one goal). From FG Polo/Diamond Paints, Tom Brodie played superbly and contributed with a hat-trick, Mir Shoaib Ahmed with a brace and Mian Abbas Mukhtar with one goal, but their efforts couldn’t bear fruit for their side.
On Sunday, 6th December the subsidiary and main final will be played on the JP&CC ground at 3:15 pm.
