LAHORE - Aun Rizvi hammered a hat-trick to help Jubilee Insurance edge Barry’s by 5-4 in the Lahore Open Polo Championship 2018 thrilling match played here at Lahore Polo Club ground on Thursday.
Besides Aun’s tremendous three goals, the remaining two came from Turab Rizvi and Edward Banner Eve - one goal each. From the losing side, Hamza Mawaz Khan and Nicholas Pepper slammed in a brace each.
Aun Rizvi scored the opening goal of the match on spot penalty to give Jubilee Insurance 1-0 lead. Hamza Mawaz then slammed an equalizer to make it 1-1. In the dying moment of the first chukker, Edward Banner fired in a field goal to provide Jubilee 2-1 lead. The second chukker saw both the sides scoring one goal apiece – Aun Rizvi for Jubilee and Nicholas for Barry’s – with Jubilee still enjoying 3-2 lead.
The only goal of the third chukker came from Barry’s when Nicholas struck a field goal to draw the score at 3-3. Jubilee changed their game plan and launched a series of attacks on Barry’s goal, their strategy paid dividend as they succeeded in thwarting two back-to-back goals to take 5-3 lead. Barry’s though fought back well by converting a 30-yard penalty to make it 5-4 but their further efforts couldn’t bear fruit as Jubilee emerged as winners. Nicholas Maria Ruiz and Saqib Khan Khakwani officiated the match as field umpires.
In another encounter of the day, BBJ Pipes defeated Newage/Diamond Paints by 5-4. Hat-trick boy Bilal Haye was main contributor from the winning side while Ahmed Zubair Butt and Ahmed Bilal Riaz struck one goal apiece. From the losing side, Mir Shoaib Ahmad, Alman Jalil Azam, Antonino Menard and Adnan Jalil Azam - all converted one goal each.
BBJ Pipes scored two goals in the first chukker through Bilal Haye while Mir Shoaib struck one for Newage/Diamond Paints to finish the chukker at 2-1. BBJ Pipes added one more in their total tally through Ahmed Zubair to stretch their lead to 3-1. Newage/Diamond Paints bounced back in style to square the things at 3-3. But fourth and last chukker saw BBJ Pipes playing better polo and scoring two more goals as against Newage’s one to win the match by 5-4.
Ahmed Ali Tiwana and Mumtaz Abbas Niazi supervised the match as field umpires. Today (Friday), AOS Polo Team will take on Team Eighteen at 3:00 pm.