Allrounder Arsalan Leads Artists To HPRC Club Trophy With 11 Goals
Chaitania Kumar’s 6, with 3 from Vishal Singh and 1 from Sri, who came in for Arjun Reddy after the first chukker, kept Tigers within reach throughout a 10-14 final score.
Hyderabad: HPRC Artists completed an unbeaten run through the Arena Polo Tournament, with a 14-10 victory over HPRC Tigers in the finals at the Hyderabad Polo & Riding Club’s arena in Aziznagar on Sunday evening.
The Artists led from the first chukker but Tigers made them earn every one of the four chukkers. Arsalan Khan opened with 4 goals in the first period against 3 from Chaitania Kumar, and the pattern of the match was set. Artists took each chukker by a single goal — 4-3, 4-3, 3-2, 3-2 — and the margin grew by one each time.
Chaitania Kumar’s 6, with 3 from Vishal Singh and 1 from Sri, who came in for Arjun Reddy after the first chukker, kept Tigers within reach throughout a 10-14 final score. The game was closer than 4 goals suggests until Arsalan’s two late goals in the last chukker settled the tournament presented by Inhabit.
The night belonged to Arsalan Khan. Eleven goals in a four chukker final — 4 in the first, 3 in each of the last two — took his tournament tally to 20 from three matches, more than any other player managed in the competition, and earned him the Most Valuable Player award.
Vedanth Lohia and Shehzad Khan added a goal and two respectively for Artists, whose 20-11 pool record and 14-10 final made them the only team to win every match they played.
The tournament’s special award for the most promising young player went to Shehzad Alam Khan of HPRC Artists, who scored 8 goals across the three matches of his first tournament — 2 goals on opening night against Devils, 4 in the pool decider against Titans and 2 in the final, both in the second chukker when Artists needed to answer a Tigers rally.
The Best Polo Pony of the Club award went to Salar, a dark bay owned by HPRC, who carried riders through the tournament without a step out of place.
The prize distribution was graced by Cyberabad Police Commissioner Dr Ramesh, IPS; Singareni Collieries Company Limited Director (Perso-nnel, Administration & Welfare) and former Medchal-Malkajgiri Collector Gowtham Potru, IAS; Telangana State Equestrian Association vice-president Siraj Attari and 85-year-old Ali Khusru Jung Bahadur, a founding member of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Riding Club, who was given a standing ovation by the gallery.