By : Wahengbam Tiken
In a thrilling and keenly contested Yvonne match, England and USA played out a 3-3 draw on the sixth day of the 12th Manipur Polo International 2018. With this draw, England made it to the final and will play host Manipur who maintained an all-win record by defeating Uruguay 5-3 in their final match yesterday.
The England, USA match started off at great pace, both sides attacking each other’s goals repeatedly. Though there were quite some good shots and near misses, both the teams defended their citadels equally competently. After a lot of to and fro, towards the end of the chukker, Kegan Walsh scored through a 60 yards penalty in the 6.03rd minute to open the account for USA.
In the 2nd chukker, there was some very good defending by English players, especially Ben Eeley and managed to keep the USA at bay. Both the teams failed to score any goals in this chukker. The 3rd chukker belonged to England, they came on their own with the captain leading the charge.
In the .16th minute of the 3rd chukker, Connor Deal struck for USA to surge ahead 2-0 and it appeared as though the Americans are running away with the match. But George Shelton had other ideas, he set the tone for this chukker when he stole the ball from Kegan Walsh in front of the American goal tapped it in to make it 1-2. Then Henry Amor picked up a pass from his brother George and slotted in another goal in the 3.55th minute to draw level. But the Americans took the lead again when Chad Bowman scored in the 5.07th minute. Towards the end of the chukker, George Amor scored to make it 3-3 and this was the score line at the end of the match, as the 4th chukker yielded no more goals.
The England team was represented by George Shelton, Ben Eeley, George Amor and Henry Amor while Kegan Walsh, Pedro Lara, Chap Bowman and Connor Deal turned out for USA. The match was officiated by Girimohan of Manipur and Rafale Secco from Uruguay.
Earlier, in the first match of the day, Manipur defeated Uruguay 5-3 to enter the final. Kaoba opened the account for Manipur in the 4.44th minute of the 1st chukker. The second goal for Manipur came when Ojit made a huge shot towards the goal chased it and tapped it in to make it 2-0 in the 5.01st minute. The Uruguayans who were matching the local lads shot for shot pulled one back through Juan Fernandez in the 5.36th minute. The score read 2-1 at the end of this chukker.
In the 2nd chukker, Bimol scored in the 1.16th minute following a fine run by Leishemba. Then in the 4.31st minute, Pradeep took a fine 60 yards penalty shot to make it 4-1 in favour of Manipur. Pradeep, then added another goal from a No. 2 penalty right in front of the goal. This chukker ended with the score reading 5-1.
The 3rd chukker yielded no goals and in the 4th chukker, the local lads failed to add to their tally while Uruguay added two goals. The first of these were scored by Guillermo Secco when he fired in a beautiful backhand in the 4.41st minute and the last Uruguayan goal was scored by Alejandro Fernandez from a penalty No 2. Manipur won the match 5-3.
The Manipur team – S Bimol, T Pradeep, P Ojit, Th Kaoba,Th Jacob and Leishemba Takhellambam. All of them played in rotation in this match. Uruguay team – Rafael Secco, Juan Fernandez, Juan Secco,, Alejandro Elhordoy, Giullermo Secco. The match was conducted by Dfr Rambir and Nadim Ali of India. Today is an off day and on Nov 29 Manipur will fight it out with England to retain the Manipur Polo International Cup.
