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Monday, November 18, 2024

Another Victory For Rajnigandha Achievers At The Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup

Here’s a quick recap of the 10 goal tournament: 

DAY 1

The first day of Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup remained an action packed one with four matches scheduled at two distinctive locations.

Starting off the day from AEC Ground, New Delhi, we had Achievers DB Realty and Aravali Polo against one another. The update can not be completed without pointing out the phenomenal effort by team Aravali Polo where Nacho Gonzales along with Angad Kalaan and Col Ravi Rathore, VSM (Retd.) grabbed the winning goals, whereafter, the team came out victorious with 7 goals to 4.  

Soon after the first match, the ground was taken over by team Gladiators and Garcha Group. This one, undoubtedly was a nail biting battle with both the teams keeping a close call at the scoreboard. Grabbing goals one after another, it was finally Garcha Group who seized the day with 6 goals to 5. 

Moving ahead in the day, after a quick break of about an hour, the play off moved to Jindal Polo Ground, Noida from New Delhi.   

Facing off one another for the third match of the day were Sujan and Jindal Panther. Honestly, what a brilliant performance by Simran Singh Shergill and Sawai Padmanabh Singh when it comes to grabbing the goals. Certainly, the valuable defense by Naveen Jindal and Capt ARS Warraich is commendable. On the other hand, the combined effort of Kuldeep Singh Rathore, Lance Watson and Bhawani Kalvi gave rise to some exaggerated skills on the field. Nevertheless, as the day might have it, it was team Jindal Panther who came out as winners with 9 goals to 6.      

Marching in for the last match, we had Sona Polo and M.A.S, where Sona Polo took the game by storm and in no time started to dominate the play putting M.A.S under pressure. Although Abhimanyu Pathak came out as the flag bearer for team M.A.S and tried to calm the pressure down, the day belonged to Sona Polo who had victory under their name for the day with 9 goals to 3.

    

DAY 2

   

Action packed – what else we could say for the day. With four games scheduled one after the other, the second day of the 10 goal Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup was as full of brilliant show of Polo as for the first. Let’s dig right into the proceedings of the day.

     

Starting off the day were teams Navy/ACC&S/Arty and Gladiators. Setting the tone for the day, both the competitors were on for to battle it out and as the chukkers went by, the intensity kept growing with a building up pressure. By the end, it was clear that Gladiators have seized the day with 9 goals to 4.5

Coming down for the second match were Rajnigandha Achievers and Achievers DB Realty. The flow of events fathomed on in a way that Rajnigandha Achievers started to have a good grip over the play, so much so that they ended up defeating their competition with 7 goals to 3.

Moving from Delhi to Noida, we had Jindal Panther and M.A.S against each other. What an incredible performance by both the teams! Keeping the scoreboard neck to neck, it was almost impossible to predict as to who shall have the big win. But as the time clocked closer to the dying seconds, it became clear as day light that Jindal Panther had grabbed the opportunity to come out as winners with 7 goals to 5.

As for the last match of the day, we had Sona Polo and Sujan against one another. Almost keeping the closeness and tightness of the earlier match, both the teams kept the spectators in speculations about who was that one team to have the fate in its favor for the day. With great attack and massive defense we later had team Sujan beat Sona Polo with 5 goals to 4.

DAY 3

     

Heading into the last day of the league, we had two matches scheduled for the day.

       

With Navy/ACC&S/Arty and Garcha Group against one another for the first match, the first team had an advantage of 1.5 goals, keeping in my the rules of Polo. For the first two chukkers, the teams had a tough combat with almost similar scores. But as the time passed by, team Garcha Group started to have a major grip on the play and seized the day with 8 goals to 4.5

   

As for the second match, we had Rajnigandha Achievers vs Aravali Polo. Keeping the competition close and tight, it was hard to determine who shall have the day in its favor. As the play neared the end, it was clear that Rajnigandha Achievers came out as winners with 5 goals to 4.

   

   

   

DAY 4

After three days of continuous action at the 10 goal Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup, the day witnessed a well-organized penalty shoot out to unfold the semi-finalists for the tournament.

The tournament further forward saw the following teams- Aravali Polo, Jindal Panther, Rajnigandha Achievers and Garcha Group.

DAY 5

It definitely was a little unusual for the polo enthusiasts to have not-a-finale Sunday. Breaking the routine, the 10 goal Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup had its semi final face off between Jindal Panther vs Aravali Polo and Rajnigandha Achievers vs Garcha Group.

High hopes and absolutely no room for prediction, we had the best four teams come down for the big reveal as to who shall step in for the final battle to be held on Monday, 1st November 2021.

Starting off the game was Jindal Panther and Aravali Polo. The extravagant performance of team Aravali Polo should not remain unsaid. As soon as the play began, the team grabbed three consecutive goals in no time, dominating the game to such an extent that the opponents could not bag any goal in their favor. Although, making a strategic comeback was team Jindal Panther. The team together grabbed a set of goals, nearing the benchmark set by Aravali Polo. When it started to seem that fate might just sweep out of Aravali Polo’s hand, they made another massive strike with which it was pretty clear that they had locked their position in the finale.

Now was the time to see which team shall accompany them in the finale of the Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup. Going for the second match were teams Rajnigandha Achievers and Garcha Group. Not a doubt, both the teams were equally powerful. With a slight change in the team structure, team Rajnigandha Achievers had Daniel Otamendi replace Juan Cruz Losada due to a muscle injury. Keeping the change in mind, which resulted in alteration of the team’s total handicap, Rajnigandha Achievers were provided with an advantage of 0.5 goals. Although, this sudden change did not disturb the discipline of the team, infact, resulted in a dominance on the game. Defeating Garcha Group, the team came out victorious with 6.5 goals against 3.

DAY 6

   

The final battle of the 10 goal Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup was played between Rajnigandha Achievers and Aravali Polo.

   

What a match it was! Starting off the game at an advantage of 0.5 goals was team Rajnigandha Achievers but in no time, Aravali Polo bagged the first goal of the finale.

    

To what was expected was a series of goals one after the other, but today was a magnificent day of great defense moves by both the teams.       

Such was the intensity of it that the match ended at 2.5 goals to 1 in favor of Rajnigandha Achievers making them the winners for the prestigious trophy.

   

Lokendra Singh was rewarded as the Most Valuable Player for the tournament.

   

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