LAHORE – High-flying Ahmed Ali Tiwana helped Master Paints Black outpace Diamond Paints 10-5 to qualify for the main final of the Aquafina Lahore Garrison Polo Championship 2019 here at the LP&CC ground on Friday.
Hero of the day Ahmed Ali Tiwana cracked a classic quartet in his team’s triumph while Manuel Eduardo Carranza contributed with a hat-trick, Sufi Muhammad Amir a brace and Ahmed Zubair Butt a goal. From Diamond Paints, Hissam Ali Hyder and Mir Huzaifa Ahmed banged in a brace each while Mir Shoaib Ahmed struck one.
Master Paints Black scored the only goal of the first chukker to have 1-0 lead. They maintained their supremacy in the second chukker as well by adding three more goals in their tally to gain 4-0 edge while Diamond Paints thrashed two back-to-back goals to reduce the margin to 4-2. The third chukker was identical to the second one, where Master Paints Black hammered another hat-trick against a brace by Diamond Paints to make it 7-4. In the fourth and last chukker, Diamond Paints converted one more goal to reduce the deficit to 7-5 while Master Paints hit another hat-trick to win the match 10-5.
Earlier in the first match of the day, Artema Medical/Black Horse Paints defeated Monnoo Polo 8-7. Kian Hall was top scorer from the winning side, which had two goals handicap advantage, while Ahmed Bilal Riaz struck one goal. From the losing side, Ghulam Mustafa Monnoo hammered a hat-trick while Babar Monnoo and Amirreza Behboudi banged in a brace each.
Monnoo Polo were off to flying start as they converted three back-to-back goals to have 3-0 lead while Artema Medical/Black Horse Paints struck one to reduce the margin to 3-1. Monnoo Polo prevailed over Artema in the second chukker as they added two more goals in their tally against one by Artema to gain 5-2 lead.
In the third chukker, Artema hammered a hat-trick of goals to level the score at 5-5 while Monnoo Polo struck one to get back 6-5 lead. In the fourth and last chukker, both the teams converted one goal each with Monnoo Polo earning 7-6 lead. With two goals handicap advantage, Artema Medical/Black Horse won the match 8-7 and qualified for the subsidiary final against Newage.