LAHORE - Magic River and Asia Building System won the opening day matches of the Aquafina Polo Cup 2019 played here at the Lahore Polo Club (LPC) ground on Tuesday.

In the first match of the day, Magic River outpaced Lotto Carpets Singapore by 8-5½. From the winning side, Abdul Rehman Monnoo emerged as top scorer with superb six goals while Hassan Agha contributed with a brace. From the losing side, which had two and a half goal handicap advantage, Mustafa Aziz, Rehan Babar and Ch Hassan Mansoor scored one goal each.

The first two chukkers of the match were dominated by Magic River as first they slammed in a brace in the first chukker and then another brace was converted by them in the second chukker, which gave them 4-0 edge while Lotto Carpets scored just one goal in the second chukker to reduce the margin to 4-1.

Magic River beat Lotto Carpets 8 – 51/2

The third chukker saw some resistance from Lotto Carpets as they struck two goals against two by Magic River as at the end of the third chukker, Magic River were enjoying 6-3 lead. The fourth and last chukker was also dominated by Magic River as they converted two more goals to finish the match having 8-3 lead. With two and a half goal handicap, the final score was 8-5½ in favour of Magic River.

In the second match of the day, which was contested among three teams on American System, Asia Building System emerged as winners by beating both of their opponents. In the first two-chukker match, Asia Building defeated Aquafina by 3-1. From the winning side, Hamza Mawaz Khan hammered a hat-trick while from the losing side, the only goal came from Adnan Jalil Azam.

In the second two-chukker match, Platinum Homes beat Aquafina by 3-2. From Platinum Homes, Faisal Shahzad, Ahmed Nawaz Tiwana and Major Haseeb Minhas struck one goal apiece while from Aquafina, Hashim Kamal Agha banged in a brace. In the third and last two-chukker match, Asia Building System outlasted Platinum Homes by 4-2 to win the second match. From the winning side, Hamza Mawaz Khan scored a hat-trick while Ali Riaz converted one while Major Haseeb Minhas and Ahmed Nawaz hit one goal each from the losing side.