LAHORE, Nov 10: Five goals by seasoned campaigner Taimur Mawaz Khan including an hat trick, guided First Law Company to enter the final of the November Polo Cup Tournament, defeating Data Textile by a convincing margin of seven and a half goals to four (7 1/2—4) at the Lahore Polo Club ground Friday.
In the final, scheduled to be played Sunday, the First Law Company will play Lahore Chatkhara. Earlier, Amin and Company and Gladiators will fight for the third position. The Gladiators defeated Kashmirian in the second match of the day 5-4 due to fine performance of Captain Shaukat Malik who scored three goals.
Taimur was the main scorer for the First Law Company while their Faisal and Raja Amir scored one goal each. Half goal was their handicap. For Data Textile, Hashim and Faaiz struck two goals each.
Facing a strong team, the First Law Company gave a splendid performance as their quartet led by Taimur, started the match in stormy fashion scoring three quick goals before Hashim scored one goal for the losing side in the dying minute of first chukker.
Taimur scored two goals for the First Law Company while his team-mate Faisal struck one goal to gain 3 1/2 to one goal lead.
Data Textile staged a comeback by giving a worthy performance in the second chukker. Besides scoring two goals, the Data Textile also defended their area well, foiling all the attempts of their rivals to score any goal. Their Faaiz scored both the goals to reduce the margin considerably (three goals to three and a half).
Taimur again increased the lead of the winning side by scoring two goals in the third chukker to also complete his hat trick. First, Taimur scored a field goal and then converted a spot penalty near the goal post to make it 5 1/2 to 3 goals
In the fourth and final chukker, the winners scored two goals while Data could score only one. Raja Amir and Taimur were the scorers for the winners while Hashim struck his second goal for Data Textile, but only to lose the match.
Teams:
First Law Company: Faisal Ejaz -2, Rashid Baig 0, Taimur Mawaz Khan 2, Raja Amer Khan 0.
Data Textile: Feroze -1, Hashim 0, Faaiz Rahim 1, Husain Iftikhar 1.
Three goals by Captain Shaukat Malik helped Gladiators recovered to beat Kashmirian 5-4. Kamran and Shafa Noon scored one goal each for the winning side.
For Kashmirian, Moula Bux scored two goals while Adnan Lone and Babar Monnoo added one goal each.
Kashmirian took a flying start scoring two goals in the first chukker through Adnan Lone and Moula Bux.
The Gladiators responded strongly in the second chukker scoring three quick goals. Two goals came from Captain Shaukat while Kamran added one goal to put his team ahead 3-2. But the lead lived short as Moula Bux struck his second goal before the chukker end to equalise the score 3-3.
The Gladiators made their position strong in the third chukker when Shafa Noon scored a field goal and later Captain Shaukat mustered his third and team’s final fifth goal which made it 5-3.
In the fourth chukker, Kashmirian struggled to come back in the match but only could reduce the margin 4-5 by scoring a single goal through Babar Monnoo.
Teams:
Gladiators: Taimur Malik -2, Shafa Noon 0, Capt. Shaukat Malik 2, Kamran Nooruddin 0.