BN, DP win Aquafina Allama Iqbal Polo openers

LAHORE   –  BN Polo and Diamond Paints won the opening day matches of the Aquafina Allama Iqbal Polo Cup 2021 played here at Jinnah Polo and Country Club (JP&CC) ground on Tuesday.

Eulogio Celestino fired in fabulous five goals in BN Polo’s 10-6 victory over Newage/Rizvi’s in the first match of the opening day. Raja Mikail Sami and Tito Ruiz Guinazu also played well and converted a brace each while Babar Naseem struck one. From Newage/Rizvi’s, the major contribution came from Salvador Ulloa, who smashed in superb five goals while Syed Turab Rizvi hit one. 

BN Polo started the match well and converted two against one goal by Newage/Rizvi’s to take 2-1 lead. Newage bounced back in style by hammering a hat-trick of goals against one by BN Polo to gain a slight 4-3 lead. The third chukker saw total dominance of BN Polo, who converted back-to-back five goals to earn a healthy 8-4 lead. They added two more goals in their tally in the fourth and last chukker, thus took 10-4 lead while Newage struck two goals, but lost the match by 6-10.

The closely contested second encounter of the day was won by Diamond Paints, who defeated DS Polo/ASC by 9½-8. Ramiro Zaveletta and Saqib Khan Khakwani played outstanding polo and converted five and two goals respectively for Diamond Paints, who had two and a half goal handicap advantage. From DS Polo/ASC, Hissam Ali Hyder smashed in sterling six while Maxwell Charlton and Ahmed Bilal Riaz scored one apiece. 

Diamond Paints started the match having 2½ goals handicap advantage, while they banged in a brace to enhance their lead 4½-0. In the dying moments of the first chukker, DS Polo/ASC converted one to reduce the margin to 4½-1. Diamond Paints made a good comeback in the second chukker, thrashing two back-to-back goals to enhance their lead to 6½-1. But DS Polo/ASC also bounced back well and hammered a hat-trick of goals to make it 6½-4.  DS Polo/ASC continued their good show in the third chukker by scoring three back-to-back goals to gain a slight 7-6½ lead but Diamond Paints then converted a brace to get back 8½-7 lead. The fourth and last chukker was evenly poised, where both the teams scored one goal apiece, thus Diamond Paints won the match 9½-8.