Bash Kazi’s Raleigh team secured a berth in Sunday’s finals of the 2011 AMG Mercedes World Cup Saturday afternoon with an exciting 1-8 win over a scrappy AMG-Mercedes team.

Raleigh jumped out to a 5-3 first chukker lead by getting a pair of goals from Pelon Escapite and Luis Escobar and a single goal from Kazi. AMG-Mercedes responded with a single goal from Max Secunda and two goals from Tommy Biddle. Escobar scored three unanswered goals in the second half with teammate Escapite adding two more goals in the third chukker for a commanding 10-3 lead.

AMG-Mercedes team captain, John Walsh, scored one goal in the fourth chukker followed by four more goals from Biddle, falling short, 10-8, with Raleigh riding off with the win.

In other matches, LAN/Comcast scored a 10-8 upset win against the defending 2010 World Cup Champions, Hublot, with Jason Crowder notching five goals in the winning effort.

The final match of the day saw Yellow Cab upset previously unbeaten Grey Goose, 11-7, knocking Grey Goose out of the finals and allowing Hublot to defend its 2010 title by virtue of no goals scored.

Brandon Phillips scored six times for Yellow Cab who held a 6-2 halftime lead before riding off with an 11-7 victory.

Final action will begin on Sunday afternoon at 1:00pm with LAN/Comcast battling Yellow Cab for the Julius Fleishman Memorial Cup. At 2:00pm, John Walsh and his AMG-Mercedes teammates will meet Grey Goose in the final of the Carl Fischer International Challenge Cup.

The final match of the day will feature Hublot and the Raleigh team in the final of the 2011 AMG-Mercedes Miami Beach Polo Cup.