LAHORE – Master Paints Black and Remington Pharma recorded contrasting victories in Coca-Cola Lahore Open Polo Championship 2022 matches played at the Lahore Polo Club on Monday.
The first match of the day saw majestic Manuel Carranza cracking a double hat-trick to guide Master Paints Black to a sparkling 10-6 success over Barry’s/DS Polo in the first match of the day.
Besides a superb six-goal contribution from the hero of the day Carranza, phenomenal Syed Aun Mohammed Rizvi also played a key role in his team’s triumph as he thrashed in two tremendous goals while Sufi Muhammad Haroon and Sufi Muhammad Amir converted one goal apiece from the winning side. On the other hand, Rulo Trotz played well for the losing team and contributed with an impressive hat-trick while Nafees Barry and Daniyal Sheikh slammed in two and one goal respectively.
Barry’s/DS Polo started the match with a field goal but Master Paints Black made a strong comeback and thrashed in three back-to-back goals to take 3-1 lead by the end of the first chukker. The second chukker was evenly poised as both the teams banged in a brace each with Master Paints Black still enjoying 5-3 lead.
The third chukker saw the dominance of the Master Paints Black, who malleted three back-to-back goals against one by Barry’s/DS to stretch their lead to 8-4. The fourth and last chukker saw both the sides playing well and converting two goals each and by the end of the chukker, Master Paints had 10-6 lead, thus emerging as winners of the match. Jhon Fisher and Amirreza Behboudi officiated the match as field umpires.
Hamza Mawaz Khan’s heroics helped Remington Pharma edge out Platinum Homes by 8-7 in the thrilling second match of the day. The enthralling encounter was tied 7-7 at the end of fourth round, so it was decided in the sudden death chukker, where Ahmed Bilal Riaz smashed in the match-winning goal for Remington Pharma.
High-flying Hamza was in sublime form, and he played excellent polo and fired in with fabulous five goals while Ahmed Zubair Butt thrashed in two tremendous goals and Ahmed Bilal Riaz scored one goal for Remington Pharma.
Amirreza Behboudi of Iran was also in great form and displayed outstanding pony and mallet work. He skillfully converted superb six goals for Platinum Homes while Bilal Noon slammed in the remaining one but their efforts couldn’t bear the fruits for their side, which lost the crucial match by a margin of just one goal in the sudden death chukker.
Both the teams started the match on a high note and converted one goal apiece to make it 1-1. Just before the end of the first chukker, Remington Pharma converted one more to take a slight 2-1 lead. One goal each was score by both the sides to make it 3-2 in the second chukker while Platinum Homes played better polo in the third chukker, scoring two goals against one by Remington Pharma to equalize the score at 4-4.
Both the teams matched fire-with-fire in the highly-charged fourth chukker and managed to pump in three goals each to make it 7-7. No more goal was then scored by either team, thus the match was then decided in the sudden death chukker, where Ahmed Bilal Riaz was the man, who did magic with mallet and pony and hammered the match-winning goal for Remington Pharma, that won the crucial encounter by 8-7. Jhon Fisher and Nicolas Ruiz Guinazu supervised the match as field umpires.
