How fierce it would have gotten, if we say, the finals of IPA National Polo Championship witnessed the scoreboard reading equal scores for both the teams throughout the six chukker, only to break the trend in the following seventh chukker with a golden goal! The ground was occupied immensely with the thudding of the galloping horses who had indulge themselves in a race of beating the opponent; the players let the frown of worry, pressure and anxiety rule the face, for it was not any trophy, but the 118th edition of the IPA National Polo Championship they were battling for. The speed, blaze and intensity of the game had everyone on the brink of the chairs, holding it tight and jumping grandly with each goal bagged, but the fate of the game remained as unpredictable as it can get.
| SAHARA WARRIORS | SONA POLO | |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Pranav Kapur (+2) | Mr. Sunjay Kapur (0)/ Mr. Gaurav Sahgal (+3) | |
| Mr. Salim Azmi (+3) | Sawai Padmanabh Singh (+3) | |
| Col. Ravi Rathore (+5) | Mr. Basheer Ali (+5) | |
| Mr. Matthew Philip Perry (+6) | Mr. Abhimanyu Pathak (+5) | |
Sona Polo, this year had made the debut in the finals of IPA National Polo Championship (Open) 2018 and they made it large, for, even after a lot of mishaps during the entire tournament the team still fought bravely to qualify in the finals, and even in the finals, they battled with a spirit of no less the winners. The match started off with a 30 yard undefended penalty shot in favor of Sahara Warriors. Taking the shot, Matthew Perry stroke the first goal of the match. As the phase of the match was, no goal was left without a counter attack. Padmanabh came into action soon after the opening goal. In a clean lofted shot, he bagged the first goal for Sona Polo. The game got caught into action when in a near sight shot, Col Ravi Rathore stroke the second goal for the team.
His action was answered by Padmanabh who got into action once again to even the score on the LA POLO scoreboard. The first chukker wrapped at a 2 all. The second chukker of the match had Matthew Perry once again in action where he controlled the ball but lost it when Basheer came in, who passed it towards his team mates, but coming back, Matthew took hold of the ball. Turning with the ball, Matthew passes it to Col Ravi Rathore who saving the ball from Padmanabh keeps it under his control before passing it back to Matthew perry who finally scores the third goal for the team. The difficult shot was followed by a smooth one for the opponent team where the patron of Sona Polo, Sanjay Kapur himself took hold of the ball and hit it clean through the goalpost bringing the scores to 3 all. Coming into a defensive mode now, Sona Polo attacked Sahara Warriors when Col Ravi Rathore in a long shot hit the ball towards Salim, but missed it after a few seconds. In that moment, Padmanabh ame in and with a back hand, passed the ball to Abhimanyu, but before the ball would reach him, Col Ravi Rathore came in to take the ball and in a splendid way stroke the fourth goal for Sahara Warriors. The chukker wrapped at 4-3 with Sahara Warriors in lead.
DAY 1 – SAHARA WARRIORS EMERGE AS THE WINNERS ON DAY 1 OF IPA NATIONAL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
DAY 2 – SAHARA WARRIORS VICTORIOUS ON SECOND DAY OF IPA NATIONAL POLO CHAMPIONSHIP
DAY 3 – SONA POLO RULED THE THIRD DAY OF IPA NATIONAL POLO CHAMPIONSHIP (OPEN) 2018
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