Unbeaten Tigers, Artists in Polo Final

With Friday’s play lost to rain, all four remaining pool matches were played on Saturday, shortened to two chukkers of 5 minutes each, in a programme that ran from 6 pm to past 8 pm under the lights.

Saif Attari, who had scored all seven goals for Warriors on the opening night, carried his side again. Level at 1-1 after the first chukker — Attari and Siddharth Mukerjee trading goals — Warriors took the second 2-0 through two more from Attari to open the evening with a win and keep their Pool ‘A’ hopes alive in the tournament presented by Inhabit — The Inside Story.

In a Pool ‘B’ match, Shahbaz for Devils and Arun Jupally for Titans scored four goals each while Sri and Naresh added one apiece in the first chukker as the teams could not be separated — 2-2, 3-3 and 5-5. Under the tournament’s extra-time rule the two sides shared the points, which left Pool ‘B’ to be decided by the final match of the night.

Chaitania Kumar scored four goals — twice in each chukker — as Tigers won both periods 2-1 to secure a place in the final from Pool ‘A’. Siddharth Mukerjee scored both goals for Chargers, taking his tally to 3 on the night, as Chargers finished the pool stage without a win despite competitive showings in both games.

The Artists needed a win to take Pool ‘B’ outright and got it, though Titans made them work for it. Arun Jupally scored 3 in each chukker — 6 in the match and 10 on the evening — but Artists had scorers across the team in Shehzad Khan (4), Arsalan Khan (3) and Vedanth Lohia (2). The Artists took the first chukker 4-3 and the second 5-3 to finish the pool stage with two wins from two.

In the final, the Tigers (Chaitania Kumar, Vishal Singh, Arjun Reddy) will take on Artists (Arsalan Khan, Vedanth Lohia, Shehzad Khan) over four chukkers at the HPRC Arena.