LAHORE      -         Black Horse Paints/Artema Medical, Diamond Paints and Master Paints registered victories in the Lt Gen Shah Rafi Alam Memorial Polo Cup 2019 sponsored by Samba Bank after defeating their respective opponents here at Lahore Polo Club ground on Wednesday.

In the first match of the day, Black Horse Paints/Artema Medical beat Monnoo Polo/Guard Group by a close margin of 9-8. From the winning side, which had two goals handicap advantage, all the seven goals were smashed in by high-flying Hamza Mawaz Khan while from the losing side, Amirreza Behboudi struck a quartet, Saqib Khan Khakwani hit a hat-trick and Taimur Ali Malik contributed one.

Monnoo Polo/Guard Group started the match by banging in a brace while Black Horse Paints/Artema Medical fought back well and thrashed two back-to-back goals to square the things at 2-all. The second chukker was also evenly poised as both the sides converted three goals each to finish the chukker at 5-all. Both the teams continued their good show in the third chukker as well as they added one more goal each in their tally to make it 6-all.

In the fourth chukker, Monnoo Polo/Guard Group though played better polo and cracked two classic goals to gain 8-6 edge, which remained intact till the end of the fourth chukker but in the end, the score was 8-all due to two goals handicap advantage for Black Horse. The match was then decided in the sudden death chukker, where Black Horse malleted the match-winning goal to win the encounter 9-8.

In the second match of the day, Diamond Paints defeated Lake City by 7½-6. Jack William Hyde and Raja Arslan Najeeb emerged as stars of the day from the winning side, which had a half goal handicap advantage, while Mir Huzaifa Ahmed struck the remaining one. From the losing side, Tom Brodie fired in five goals while Farhad Sheikh hit one.

Lake City opened their account by converting two goals to have 2-0 lead while Diamond Paints slammed in one to reduce the margin to 2-1. Lake City also prevailed in the second chukker as they pumped in two more goals to gain 4-1 edge while Diamond Paints converted two to reduce the deficit to 4-3.

Lake City added one more goal in their tally in the beginning of the third chukker to further enhance their lead to 5-3. Diamond Paints then bounced back well and thrashed two back-to-back goals to level the score at 5-all. In the beginning of the fourth chukker, Diamond Paints fired in a field goal to gain a slight 6-5 lead. Lake City then struck an equaliser to make it 6-all. In the dying moments of the match, Diamond Paints converted the match-winning goal to win the match 7-6.

In the third and last match of the day, Master Paints outclassed AOS Polo Team by 12½-1. Mariano Regal was hero of day the from the winning side, which had a half goal handicap advantage, as he hammered double hat-trick while Raja Jalal Arslan contributed five goals and Bilal Haye one. Hamza Ali Hakeem struck the only goal from the losing side.

Master Paints fully dominated the match right from the word go as they hammered a hat-trick of goals in the first chukker and added four more goals in their tally in the second chukker to gain a healthy 7-0 edge. They pumped in three more goals in the third chukker to take an unassailable 10-0 lead while they banged in a brace in the fourth and decisive chukker to complete one dozen goals. In the dying moments of the match, AOS converted the consolation goal as the match ended at 12½-1 in favour of Master Paints.