LAHORE   -  Samba Bank and Barry’s registered victories in the Happy Cow Polo for Peace II Pakistan Polo Cup 2020 opening matches played here at Lahore Polo Club ground on Tuesday. 

In the first match of the day, Samba Bank played well against Guard Rice/Platinum Homes and outlasted them by 5½-1. Alman Jalil Azam emerged as hero of the day by hammering a hat-trick of goals from Samba Bank, which had a half goal handicap advantage, while the remaining goal came from Edward Banner Eve and Syed Turab Rizvi - one goal each. Taimur Ali Malik scored the only goal from the losing side.  Samba Bank were off to flying start as they thrashed three back-to-back goals in the first chukker to gain 3-0 lead. No goal was scored in the second chukker while the third chukker saw only goal coming from Guard Rice/Platinum Homes to make it 3-1. In the fourth and last chukker, Samba Bank slammed in two more goals to win the match by 5½-1. Jamie Le Hardy and Kian Hall officiated the match as field umpires. 

In the second match of the day, Barry’s toppled AOS by a big margin of 11-5½, thanks to high-flying Ernesto Trotz, who cracked exceptional eight goals while Hamza Mawaz Khan and Ibarhim Barry contributed two and one goal respectively. From the losing side, which had one and a half goal handicap advantage, Hamza Ali Hakeem banged in a brace while Ahmed Zubair Butt and Guy Gibrat hit one goal each. 

Barry’s dominated the match right from the word go as they banged in a brace against one goal by AOS to have 2-1 lead and then they added two more goals in their tally to further enhance their lead to 4-1 while AOS hit one to reduce the margin to 4-2. The third chukker was fully dominated by Barry’s as they fired in five fabulous goals to strengthen their lead to 9-2. The fourth and last chukker was evenly poised as both the sides struck two goals each. With one and a half goal handicap advantage for AOS, Barry’s won the match by 11-5½. Ahmed Ali Tiwana and Raja Arslan Najeeb were the field umpires. 

Today (Wednesday), three more matches will be played. In the first match of the day, Samba Bank will play against Pricemeter.pk at 1:00 pm, Remounts will vie against Colony team at 2:00 pm and Diamond Paints/FG Polo will compete against D Polo at 3:00 pm.