LAHORE              -              Master Paints and AOS Polo Team registered victories in the opening matches of the Aquafina Lahore Garrison Polo Championship 2019 played here at the Fortress Stadium on Tuesday.  In the inaugural encounter of the tournament, Master Paints outscored Barry’s by 11-8½. Mariano Regal fired in fantastic five goals while his teammates Mumtaz Abbas Dabboo struck four and Birthday Boy Farooq Amin Sufi contributed with a brace in Master Paints’ win. From the losing side, which had a half goal handicap advantage, Ernesto Trotz converted five goals while Agha Musa, Omer Asjad Malhi and Nafees-ur-Rehman Barry hit one goal each.  Master Paints started the match with a field goal to take 1-0 lead. But Barry’s bounced back well by hitting a hat-trick to gain 3-1 edge. Barry’s continued their good show in the second chukker by smashing two more goals to enhance their lead to 5-1 while Master Paints succeeded in pumping in five goals to take back slight 6-5 lead.  Master Paints maintained their supremacy in the third chukker as they added four more goals in their tally to strengthen their lead to 10-5. In the fourth and last chukker, although Barry’s prevailed over Master Paints by hitting three goals against one by their opponents, yet their score too less to help them win the match, as Master Paints won it by 11-8½. In the second match of the day, AOS Polo Team defeated Newage by 6-4½. From the winning side, Raja Samiullah cracked a classic quartet while Raja Jalal Arslan and Kian Hall hit one goal apiece. From the losing side, which had one and a half goal handicap advantage, Edward Banner Eve banged in a brace while Syed Turab Rizvi struck one goal.

AOS Polo Team opened their account by converting a 30-yard penalty to take 1-0 lead, which couldn’t last long as Newage fired in a field goal to equalise the score at 1-1. AOS then thrashed two back-to-back goals to gain 3-1 edge. AOS prevailed over Newage in the third chukker as well as they converted two more goals against one by Newage to stretch their lead to 5-2 lead. No goal was scored in the third chukker while in the fourth and last chukker, Newage converted one to reduce the margin to 5-3 while AOS added one more goal in their tally to finish the match having 6-3 lead. With one and a half goal handicap advantage for Newage, the final score was 6-4½ in favour of AOS.