MSC bankrupt Sonali

UNSTOPPABLE JIMMY: Mohammedan forward Rasel Mahmud Jimmy (R) runs past Sonali Bank defender during their Club Cup hockey semifinal at the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium yesterday. Jimmy was instrumental in Mohammedan's 8-1 mauling of the bankers.Photo: STAR

Titans Mohammedan Sporting Club stormed into the final of the Dhaka Bank Club Cup Hockey with a massive 8-1 win over Sonali Bank SRC in the first semis at the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium yesterday.
The Black and Whites will now play the final against the winners between Abahani and Usha Krira Chakra, who play the second semifinal today.
Mamunur Rahman Chayan and Rahul Kanti Roy struck two goals each while Kamruzzaman Rana, Sabbir Hossain, Khandokar Hanif Ahmed and Rasel Mahmud Jimmy netted one goal apiece in a one-sided affair where Prashanto Roy scored the consolation goal for Sonali Bank.
Sonali Bank, last year's runners-up, had earlier promised to put up a spirited show against their mighty opponents who consisted of most of the national players, but the fact was that Mohammedan toyed with the Bankers after getting off to a cautious start following the Bankers' inclusion of two Pakistani players striker Mohammad Osama and penalty corner specialist Wasif Siddique, who was the highest scorer in the South Asian Games hockey event in Bangladesh. But the duo had no impact on the Bankers' play throughout the game. Besides, both the Pakistanis got hardly any support from their shaky teammates to trouble Mohammedan.
However, it was Mohammedan's national forward Rasel Mahmud Jimmy, who controlled the Mohammedan play and turned provider with four assists out of eight as well as scoring one goal for Mohammedan.
Mohammedan could have taken the lead in the first 10 minutes, but striker Jahidul Islam Rajon squandered both of his sitters before Kamruzzaman Rana, availing a slapped shot from Jimmy, made no mistake to put Mohammedan ahead in the 15th minute.
Four minutes later, Sonali Bank should level the margin, but their striker Iqbal Nader Prince failed to beat Mohammedan goalkeeper Mehrab Hossain Kiron in a one-on-one situation and the Motijheel-based outfit doubled the margin through Sabbir as Jimmy set Sabbir though Jimmy could have struck the goal.
Thereafter Chayan converted two successive penalty corners with a combination of Musa Mia and Rana to make the margin 4-0.
After resumption, Jimmy was sent on the attack instead of his holding midfielder role and his fierce shot hit the board in the 42nd minute before substitute Hanif widened the margin to 6-0.
Then Mohammedan played a man short for twenty minutes following Sabbir's bookable offence on Bankers' defender Irfan and the game was suspended for 10 minutes following Bankers' demand of a 'red card' on Sabbir.
With one man short, Mohammedan faced a wave of attacks and successfully survived all attacks and scored two more goals through counter attack with Jimmy and Rahul scoring one goal each.
Two minutes from time, Rimon pulled one goal back for the losers.