ISLAMABAD – Team BN Polo qualified for the Twin City Challenge Polo Cup 2022 after outpacing Asean by 10-6½ in the second semifinal played here at Islamabad Club polo ground on Friday.
For BN Polo Team, Baber Naseem displayed high-quality polo skills and contributed with sparkling six goals while his teammates Ahmed Ali Tiwana hammered a hat-trick of goals and Haider Naseem converted one goal. For Team Asean, Raja Jalal Arslan cracked a quartet while Hashim Asad and Ali Arshad scored one goal each. The losing side – Asean – made into the subsidiary final, where they will take on Shahtaj on Sunday.
BN Polo Team dominated the match right from the word go as they fired in fabulous five goals to gain a healthy 5-0 lead in the first chukker. The second chukker saw both the sides scoring two goals each with BN Polo still enjoying 7-2 lead. Asean played better polo in the third chukker as they slammed in two goals against one by BN Polo, who still had 8-4 lead. The fourth and last chukker was evenly poised as both the teams converted a brace each, thus BN Polo won the encounter by 10-6½ as the losing side had a half goal handicap advantage.
The Islamabad polo season has started with this 4-goal tournament, in which six top teams are exhibiting their prowess. The teams are divided into two pools as pool A consists of Shahtaj, PAF and Kalabagh while pool B comprises Asean, Sheikh Enterprises and BN Polo. Earlier on Thursday, the first semifinal was played and was won by Kalabagh, who qualified for the main final while the losing side, Shahtaj booked berth in the subsidiary final.
