By Sohail Ali
LAHORE, Nov 01 (APP): Master Paints/ FG Polo beat Diamond Paints/FG Polo by eleven and a half goal to nine in the Shaukat Khanum Pink Polo Cup 2020 main final played here at Jinnah Polo and Country (JP&CC) on Sunday.
From Master Paints/FG Polo, which had one and a half goal handicap advantage, Mannuel Carranza was in sublime form and emerged as star of the day with excellent eight-goal haul while he was ably assisted by his teammate Ahmed Ali Tiwana who contributed with a brace. From Diamond Paints/FG Polo, Tom Brodie also played well and smashed in superb six goals and Mir Huzaifa Ahmed and Abbas Mukhtar converted one goal each but they couldn’t get back to winning way and lost the final with a margin three and a half goal.
Both the sides started the final very well and matched fire-with-fire in the entire first chukker and made it 2-all. In the dying moments of the first chukker, Master Paints/FG Polo took a slight 3-2 lead.
Diamond Paints/FG Polo levelled the score at 3-all in the beginning of the second chukker, but after that Master Paints/FG Polo dominated the entire chukker and hammered a hat-trick to gain a healthy 6-3 lead.
Diamond Paints then made a good comeback and banged in two back-to-back goals to reduce the margin to 6-5 but Master Paints once again made their presence felt and converted one more goal to finish the chukker having 7-5 lead.
The fourth and decisive chukker proved to be highly competitive as both the teams gave tough times to each other especially Diamond Paints made a tremendous comeback and hammered a hat-trick to gain 8-7 lead but after that, Master Paints gained their lost touch and banged in a beautiful brace to finish the final, having 10-8 lead. With one and a half goal handicap for Master Paints, they won the final eleven and a half goal to eight. Rulo Trotz and Amirreza Behboudi supervised the final as field umpires.
Shaukat Khanum Interim CEO Dr Asim Yousaf graced the concluding ceremony as chief guest and distributed trophy and medals among the winners. Other notables present on the occasion were JP&CC President Lt Col (r) Shoaib Aftab, Secretary Maj (r) Babar Mahboob Awan and players, their families and polo enthusiasts.
