10th Manipur International Polo tournament India-B wallop USA, set up summit clash with Aus
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 27 2016: Avenging their defeat last year in the summit clash, India-B (Manipur) today put up a dominating performance to thrash reigning champions USA 10-2 in the second semifinal match of the 10th Manipur International Polo tournament held as part of the ongoing Sangai Festival.

With the convincing win today, the home team set up a summit clash with Australia on Tuesday.

India B were in control of the 12-goal thriller second semifinal match against USA from the second chukker.

10th Manipur International Polo tournament

The defending champions held the home team 1-1 in the evenly contested first chukker.

It was Ryan Cronin-Prather of the USA who drew first blood in the 57th second of the first chukker.

The lead was however cancelled out by M Jawan of the home team in the 4.9' of the same chukker.

USA could not hold the home team, who were on a scoring spree, in the second chukker and they conceded six goals.

The home team took a lead through S Bimol in the 25th second of the second chukker.

Later, it was raining goals for the home team as Bimol was at it again at the 53rd second.

P Ojit (1.59' and 5.2') and T Pradeep (5.26' and 5.54') grabbed a brace each.

On the other hand, the USA team went defensive as they could not score a single goal in the second chukker.

M Jawan and Th Ranjit struck a goal each in the 3rd chukker for the home team while Lucas Reid scored one for the USA team.

L Thomson took charge to score one goal for India-B in the fourth chukker to complete the rout.

Earlier in the day, debutante Kenya came from behind to beat India-A by a margin of four goals to two in the 5th place play-off.

Capt Narender of India A slammed home the opener in the 16th second of the first chukker only to be equalised by Rowena Stichbury of Kenya in the 1.14' of the same chukker.

India A took another lead in the second chukker through Abungcha Salam (56th second).

Kenya could not level the score in the second chukker as their efforts went abegging.

However, Geoffry Cambiaso restored parity in the third chukker (6.58') .

Later, Lorianzo Soriano of Kenya took charge to hit a brace (16th sec and 56th sec) in the fourth chukker to earn the 5th spot.