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RAWALPINDI: India narrowly beat Pakistan 10-9 in the second polo match here on Friday to infuse element of excitement and anticipation in Saturday's series-decider.

The Indian victory in the second match of the SAF Polo Challenge 2004, being played at Rawalpindi Polo Club, brought the two teams at par after Pakistan had won the first match 8-7 on Tuesday.

All eyes will now be on the third match to see which team wins the first leg of the series, being played as part of build-up activities for the 9th SAF Games to be held in the Pakistan capital from March 29.

The second leg of Pakistan-India polo series, also to be of three matches, will be played in New Delhi next month. Former Foreign Minister, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, was the chief guest on the occasion and gave away the prizes. Zahid Omar and Dhruvpal Gotdara (India) were the umpires while Kalan of India was the match referee.

Pakistan paid the penalty for a lop-sided third chakkar in which they conceded five goals. In the fifth and final chakkar, the two teams were at par at 8-8 before Indian rider Ravi Rathore and his skipper Uday Kalaan scored two consecutive goals through good horsemanship to take a comfortable lead.

Pakistan, however, pulled one goal back and came close to scoring in the dying moments before the final whistle came.

For India, Bashir Ali scored four goals, Uday Kalaan had three, Bhawani Singh hit twice and Ravi Rathore was successful once. Rathore was earlier also injured when he fell off his perch but recovered after medical attention to resume the game.

Pakistan's captain Shah Qublai Alam hit five goals, while Samiullah Raja scored twice. Omar Minhas and Shah Shamyl Khan had one goal each.

Pakistan captain Qublai Khan called for neutral umpires for such series. "We also had new horses and had difficulty adjusting." Uday Kalaan of India said "Saturday's game would be a crunch match. "It would be anybody's game."