Abahani clinch record win

Krishna Kumar scored his second hattrick in the Green Delta Insurance Premier Division Hockey League to help propel title contenders Abahani to a massive 13-0 win over Dhaka Wanderers Club at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.

With an eighth straight win from as many matches Abahani topped the the 12-team table on 24 points, three more than closest competitors Dhaka Mariner Youngs Club and Mohammedan SC, who however have played a match less than the leaders.

It now seems though that the Club Cup champions, Abahani, have made it a habit of wining every match by big margins, seeing as they notched identical 10-0 wins over Azad SC, Bangladesh Police and Bangladesh SC. Yesterday's triumph also ranked as the highest margin for victory, eclipsing Dhaka Wanderers' 3-13 defeat to Mohammedan last Tuesday.

Fresh from a 5-0 win over Wari Club in the previous fixture, Abahani opened their account through Sohanur Rahman Sabuj as he converted a penalty corner in the 12th minute. After that, Malaysian Ahmed Tajuddin, Arshad Hossain, Musa Mia and Ashraful Islam scored one goal apiece to hand the Dhanmondi-based outfit a comfortable 5-0 lead by the end of the first-half.

After resumption, Abahani turned up the pressure and added eight more goals, courtesy of Krishna's second hattrick in the tournament.

The Sky Blues seemed to be just toying with the Wanderers backline, scoring one goal after the other on the minnows without facing almost any resistance. National striker Krishna completed his triple, the 23rd hattrick of the league, by scoring in the 55th and 67th minutes respectively.

Indian Gunashekar Malayalan and Mohammad Moshin scored twice before Tajuddin and Arashed scored one goal each in the second half to inflict the Wanderers' seventh defeat in eight matches.

“In the previous match, there was a slight lack of combination after three foreign players were drafted in the playing eleven but today, they had no such issue and played accordingly. We allowed the Wanderers' players to come forward in the second half and then launched quick counterattacks to score more goals,” said Abahani coach Mahbub Harun.

“We are on the right tract in the title race till now, the eighth match, but the big matches are ahead and we are now looking forward to carrying on this performance into the upcoming encounters against Mohammedan SC and Mariners Young's Club,” said Harun while adding that former Indian national player, Bikash Pillai, will feature against Mohammedan on May 21.