Mohammedan sink Mariners
A brace from Arvinder Singh powered Mohammedan to a crucial 3-1 win over defending champions Mariner Young's Club in a frequently-interrupted encounter of the Green Delta Insurance Premier Division League at the Maulna Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.
The Black and Whites were not as impressive as they were against archrivals Abahani, but their spirited performance was good enough to see off Mariner Young's, who had beaten Mohammedan twice (3-1 and 4-2) in the last season on way to clinching their maiden league title.
The tie was equally important for both Motijheel-based sides in their bid to strengthening their positions on the table and it turned out to be a neck-and-neck battle, but the unruly attitude from both sets of players and club officials as well as frequent review appeals against umpires' decisions interrupted the tempo of the game, which was stopped for nearly 20 minutes in the second half over a penalty stroke decision against Mohammedan.
The match was also stopped by the third umpire for more than five minutes after a Mariner Young's official allegedly entered the video referral room, soon after the umpire had changed his decision of penalty stroke against Mohammedan following the review.
Fresh from a morale boosting 2-1 win over Abahani, Mohammedan got off to a fine start against their neighbours, who suffered from a lack of cohesiveness. Mariners had two German players in their side, but neither of them could make a move towards the Mohammedan territory throughout the match.
Mohammedan came close to taking the lead in the fourth minute when a fierce hit from Rabbi Salehin went narrowly wide while four minutes later, Rasel Mahmud Jimmy and Gurjinder Singh exposed the opposition defence before Gurjinder was fouled by goalkeeper Ashim Gope as Mohammedan earned penalty stroke. Arvinder, however, squandered the hit.
Mariner Young's then regrouped and earned two penalty corners but could not avail before Hasan Jubair Niloy flicked in a cutback from Pushkor Khisa Mimo to give the defending champions the lead in the 34th minute.
Mohammedan applied heavy pressure and levelled the score from a penalty stroke converted by Gurjinder in the 44th minute following three successive penalty corners.
The Black and Whites kept pressing but Gurjinder failed to connect to a cutback from Jimmy before Mohammedan's experienced goalkeeper Zahid Hossain denied a thwarted penalty corner taken by Mamunur Rahman Chayan.
In the latter part of the game, Mohammedan earned two penalty corners and Arvinder converted those in the 64th and 68th minutes to wrap up the victory.
With their 10th win from 10 matches, Mohammedan took solo lead with 30 points, three points ahead of Mariners and six more than Abahani, even though the Sky Blues played a match less.
In the day's first match, Shadharan Bima came from behind to play out a 3-3 draw against Bangladesh Police.
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