LAHORE, Mar 01 (APP):Hissam Ali Hyder’s heroics helped Diamond Paints/Newage carve out an impressive 11-8 victory against Master Paints in the International Steels National Open Polo Championship
for Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup here at Lahore Polo Club ground on Friday.
Hissam played phenomenal polo and fired in fantabulous five goals
to guide his side to victory while his teammates Mir Shoaib Ahmad contributed with a hat-trick, Salvador Ulloa a brace and Alman Jalil Azam a goal. From Master Paints, Juan Cruz Losada hammered five goals, Hamza Mawaz Khan two and Saqib Khan Khakwani one goal.
In the first chukker, Master Paints launched a series of attacks
on Diamond Paints/Newage goal and succeeded in converting three goals
to take a healthy 3-0 lead. Losada slammed in all the three goals for Master Paints. Diamond Paints/Newage opened their account in the second chukker, when Salvador fired in a field goal to make it 3-1. Losada added one more in his team’s tally to stretch their lead to 4-1. Hissam then converted a 60-yard penalty to reduce the margin to 4-2, but Saqib hit a field goal to further strengthened Master Paints lead to 5-2.
In the third chukker, Diamond Paints/Newage fought back well and banged in two back-to-back goals to make it 5-4 but Master Paints also played exceptional polo and smashed in two back-to-back goals through Hamza and Losada to stretch their lead to 7-4 lead.
The fourth chukker was dominated by Diamond Paints/Newage, who fired
in fantastic four goals as against one by Master Paints to level the score at 8-8. Hissam Ali Hyder struck two goals and Mir Shoaib and Salvador one goal each for Diamond Paints/Newage while Hamza scored the only goal for Master Paints.
The fifth and decisive chukker was fully dominated by Diamond Paints/Newage, who hammered a hat-trick to register the 11-8 triumph.
Hissam this time pumped in two goals while Mir Shoaib one. Nicolas Scortichini and Martin Fewster officiated the match as field umpires while Shah Qublai Alam was match referee.
According to points table, Diamond Paints/Newage are at number one
as they played two matches and won both while Master Paints are at number two with one win and one loss. At number three are Barry’s, who won one match out of two, which they played while at number four are Master Paints Black with one win and one loss. BBJ Pipes are on the bottom of the points table after as they lost both of their matches.
Tomorrow (Saturday), Barry’s will take on Master Paints Black at
11 am in the first match while in the second match, Diamond Paints/Newage will view against BBJ Pipes at 12:30 pm.