LAHORE, April 2: Lucas Di Paola and Isfandiyar shared nine goals leading Fauji Remounts to a 12-9 win over Nokia Chimera in the last pool A match of the Quaid-i-Azam Gold Cup national polo championship on Saturday at Lahore Garrison ground.
Remounts will play Bahria Town in the subsidiary final on Sunday while Bank Alfalah will clash with BMA Capital Army in the main final.
Despite an outstanding performance by Nacho Gonzaloz who scored eight goals including a double hat trick, his side eventually ended up as losers.
Paola hammered five goals and Isfandiyar scored four goals outclassing the extraordinary performance of Gonzaloz.
Remounts surged ahead 3-0 in the opening chukker with Paola scoring two field goals and Isfandiyar producing one goal.
Chimera struck back in the second chukker when Gonzaloz went into action with two successive field goals before Remounts Khurshid made it 4-2. Winners made it 5-2 when Sufi Aamir scored a field goal.
The losers moved closer to Remounts in the third chukker in which Gonzaloz completed a hat trick, displaying accurate shooting and superb horsemanship, narrowing the lead 8-5 .
The winners held on to consolidate the lead in the fourth chukker when Paola slammed two goals in a row after Isfandiyar had made it 6-3. Gonzaloz set his sights on his double hat trick by adding two more goals.
Remounts closed the fourth chukker at 12-6 but surprisingly failed in the fifth and final chukker in which Chimera made desperate attempts to score slamming three goals in the process.
Fourth chukker saw Remounts, Paola completing his tally by scoring his fifth goal and Gonzaloz achieving a rare feat of double hat trick by scoring his sixth goal off a 30 yard-penalty hit narrowing the margin 9-6 .
The winners slammed in their last three goals, two by Isfandiyar and one goal by Khurshid Ahmad.
Chimera, completely dominated the fifth chukker in which Gonzaloz hammered two more goals to become the highest scorer of the match with Yaqoob Sial scoring the other.—APP
