New Delhi: Riding on an important early lead, Panasonic outplayed Cavalry-USPA by 5½ goals to four and win the Amity Polo Cup (eight goals) here on Sunday.

The star of the match were the 19 year old Vishwaraj Singh and Niall M Donnelly scoring a brace each for Panasonic, who began with ½ goal on handicap.

Panasonic started attacking from the initial moments, but some bad execution upfront could not see them scoring early in the match. They also wasted two penalty chances before Adhiraj Singh drew the first blood of the match.

Cavalry fought back well and Ravi Rathore had almost found the post from the right but courtesy a brilliant block by Manupal Godara foiled their first chance at the cherry. Towards the end of the first chukker, Rathore was amidst the action once again and this he was successful in his advent and scored the opener for Cavalry from a 30 yard penalty.

In the second chukker, Donnelly with his brilliant tactics widened the gap and scored two brilliant goals to send his team up by 3½-1.

The misery of Cavalry never seemed to stop and Vishwaraj scored one more to take a comprehensive lead. Looking down the barrel, Cavalry upped the ante and reaped success when Navjit Sandhu pumped one in from the 60 yard penalty to make the scoreline 4½-2.

The fourth and the last chukker saw some fierce fightback from the Cavalry and were successful in scoring a goal when a nice pass by Godara was converted by Sandhu.

Vishwaraj however foiled everything for the Cavalry as he scored his second goal to send Panasonic up by 5½-3. Cavalry did score one more through Rathore who converted from a spot-hit but it was not enough to impact the outcome of the match.

Scorers: Panasonic – Niall M Donnelly (2), Vishwaraj Singh (2), Adhiraj Singh (1); Cavalry-USPA –Navjit Sandhu (2), Ravi Rathore (2).

By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury

Photo by Hridi P Mohanta

Indian Sports News