Victories for Diamond Paints, ABL in Samba Bank Polo Championship

In the first encounter of the day, Diamond Paints outlasted Green Orchar/Rijas in thrilling match by 5-4 courtesy Mir Shoaib Ahmed and Eulogio Celestino. Mir Shoaib Ahmed and Eulogio Celestino played exceptionally well and fired 2 goals each while Mir Huzaifa Ahmed contributed the remaining goal. Geoffredo and Ahmed Zubair Butt contributed a brace each for Green Orchar/Rijas.

Mir Shoaib opened account for Diamond Paints as he fired a goal to take 1-0 over Rijas in the first chukker. Geoffredo struck a field goal and equal the match 1-1 in the start of second chukker. Diamond Paints took charge and started playing aggressively as they struck 3 more goals, 2 from Eulogio and 1 from Mir Shoaib and took 4-1 lead.

Both the teams played equally well in the third chukker and added 1 goal each to make it 5-2. Mir Huzaifa banged in 1 goal from Diamond Paints while Ahmed Zubair Butt contributed 1 from Green Orchard. In the last chukker, Green Orchard/Rijas came hard over the opponents but their struggle went in vain as they only managed to score 2 more goals through Geoffredo and Ahmed Zubair but that only reduce the margin 5-4. The tried hard to equalize the score but could not succeed in their efforts and lost the match 5-4.

Second match of the day was equally exited as Allied Bank and Habib Metro Lions/Master paints played well till the end to earn the victory but Allied Bank managed to register victory against opponents with a narrow margin of 7-6. Saqib Khan Khakwani played exceptionally well and hammered a hat-trick while Mumtaz Abbas Niazi and Arslan Najeeb banged in 2 goals each. Hamza Mawaz Khan fired three goals from Habib Metro Lions while Edward Banner struck 2 goals and Aun Rizvi hit one goal.
The match started with high pace as both the teams struck 2 goals each in the first chukker. Mumaz Abbas opened the account for Allied Bank while Edward Banner and Aun Rizvi contributed 1 goal each to make it 2-1 but in the dying moments of first chukker, Mumtaz Abbas fired another goal to make it 2-2. Edward Banner from Habib Metro Lions struck the only goal of second chukker and takes lead one more time for his team.

Allied Bank came from behind in the third chukker as they fired two more goal through brilliant Saqib Khan Khakwani and Raja Arslan and took 4-3 lead but in final moments of third chukker, Hamza converted a 60-yard penalty and level te score 4-4. In the start of fourth and last chukker, Saqib Khakwani converted a 60-yards penalty and takes lead once again but that remained for short time as Hamza pumped in back to back 2 goals provide his team slight edge over Allied Bank.

Now it could be anyone’s game but Allied Bank players started playing aggressively and banged in 2 more goals and won the thrilling match 7-6. Raja Arslan scored first goal to equalize the game followed by another goal by Saqib Khan Khakwani who won the match for Allied Bank. The only match of the championship will be played today at 3:00 pm between Army and Newage at the Lahore Polo Club ground.