LAHORE - FG Polo team outclassed PBG/Remounts by 9½-4 to move into the main final of the Lt Gen Shah Rafi Alam Polo Cup 2018 sponsored by Al-Khair Group here at the Lahore Polo Club ground on Thursday.

High-flying Eulogio Celestino maintained his supremacy throughout the match as he fired in fantabulous five goals to guide FG team to victory while Shah Shamyl Alam hammered a hat-trick and Abbas Mukhtar hit one goal. From the losing side, Nicholas Maria Ruiz slammed in a hat-trick and Lt Col Rab Nawaz Tiwana contributed one.

FG team, which had half goal handicap advantage, were off to flying start as they thwarted two back-to-back goals - one each by Shah Shamyl and Eulogio - to take 2-0 lead. Nicholas struck one to finish the chukker at 2-1. FG displayed high-quality polo in the second chukker and mallotted fantastic four goals - Eulogio converted two and Shah Shamyl one - to enhance their lead to 6-1 while PBG/Remounts converted one through Lt Col Rab Nawaz to finish the chukker at 6-2.

The third chukker was fully dominated by FG team, who thwarted all the three goals to take unassailable 9-2 lead. This time, Eulogio added two more goals and Shah Shamyl one in the team’s total tally. PBG/Remounts though fought back well and scored two back-to-back goals through Nicholas to reduce the margin to 9-4 yet they couldn’t add more goals in their tally and lost the match by 5-9½ as the winning side had half goal handicap advantage. Saqib Khan Khakwani and Raja Temur Nadeem officiated the match as field umpires.

In another match of the day, Artema Medical defeated AOS Polo team by 8-6½ to qualify for the subsidiary final. Nicholas Pepper emerged as top scorer from Artema Medical while Daniyal Sheikh and Hamza Mawaz Khan contributed a brace each. Hashim Kamal Agha scored a quartet for the losing side, which had half goal handicap advantage, while Hamza Ali and Goffredo Cutinelli contributed one goal each but their efforts couldn’t bear fruit for AOS team.

Today (Friday), two crucial matches will be played to decide the other main and subsidiary finalist teams. EFU Life will play the first match of the day against Newage/Diamond Paints at 2pm while Team Eighteen will vie against Total Nutrition in the second match of the day at 3pm.