Pakistan go down to India in polo final
Pakistan signed off from their FIP Polo World Cup Playoffs campaign as the runner-up team in Zone D, after losing to India 12-9 in the final.
Both teams had qualified for the Polo World Cup to be held in Argentina, where ten teams from different regions will be contesting, including defending champions Chile.
Pakistan, before entering the final against the archrivals, had topped the tables by scoring 28 goals and conceding 17 in the preliminary matches, with a goal difference of 11, after wins over Nigeria and South Africa.
India, on the other hand, finished second during the group stage, having scored 17.5 goals and conceding 10 for a goal difference of 7.5
Pakistan’s Raja Samiullah had been nominated for the best-player-of-the-championship award.
‘Young guns made the difference’
Pakistan had selected a relatively young team for the qualifying tournament, aiming to give their younger players a taste of some top-flight polo. Even an ace player like Hissam Ali Hyder was overlooked. Team manager Abdul Qadir Khan Mamdot was satisfied with his team’s performance.
“Though we lost to India but what means more to us is that we qualified to play in the World Cup in Argentina,” Mamdot told The Express Tribune from Malaysia.
“Our boys weren’t able to convert some easy goal opportunities but still managed to thump in nine goals. The margin wasn’t that large. But overall we had a good tournament with loads of positives. Pakistan had taken a huge risk playing with a young team, which made the difference and everything turned out exceptionally well for us.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2011.
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