Affan Yusuf’s two moments of brilliance, which both resulted in goals, helped Central Railway to twice come from behind and hold Punjab National Bank (PNB) to a 2-2 thrilling draw in a Pool-A match of the MHAL (Mumbai Hockey Association Limited) Super Division League 2015 and played under lights and in a steady rainfall at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate on Saturday evening.
MHAL President, Mangha Singh Bakshi (right) presents the ‘Man-of-the-match’ award to Central Railway forward Affan Yusuf, who scored two superb goals to help his team win.
After PNB skipper Jitender Saroha, who had earlier wasted a penalty stroke when he had failed to beat Central custodian Avadhut Solankar, made amends by later scoring from a penalty corner in the 27th minute to give his team a 1-0 half-time lead.
But, Central fought back and managed to level the scores when Yusuf made no mistake from a square pass by Victo Singh in the 43rd minute. PNB who squandered many short corners regained the lead when Ajitesh Roy tapped in after Sonu Kumar and Sumit Pal worked nicely to open up the rival defence in the 57th minute. Once again Yusuf came to his team’s rescue with a timely goal. After making a long darting run Yusuf worked a wall pass with teammate Yuvraj Walmiki and finished with a superb reverse hit in the 68th minute.
Earlier in the afternoon, Rhema Sports put up a good fighting performance and held defending champions Indian Oil to a creditable 2-2 draw in another Pool-A match.
Later in another match of the same pool, Namdhari XI ground out a hard-fought 2-1 win against Abhi Foundation to collect all the three points from their opening match. Inderpal Singh scored the first goal from a field effort in the 24th minute before Gurjinder Singh from another field effort doubled the lead in the 33rd minute. Manish Rana struck in the 35th minute for the lone goal for Abhi Foundation, who lost their third game.
Indian Oil, who had disappointing outing and failed to make the semi-finals of the recently concluded Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup here in Mumbai last month, faced quite a strong challenge from Rhema Sports, who put behind their humiliating 0-9 loss to Punjab National Bank in the previous match, and did well to match their more fancied opponents.
However, after the first half ended goalless, India Oil finally managed to hit the target through Roshan Minz in the 52nd minute before Rhema restored parity when Harjot Singh scored 10 minutes later. But 7 minutes later Olympian Ptrabhjot Singh found the net to regain Indian Oil’s lead and once again Rhema fought back and got the second goal through Sanjay Bir in the final minute and salvage a draw for his team.
Gurpreet Singh (Rhema Sports), Karandeep Singh (Namdhari XI) and Affan Yusuf (Central Railway) won the ‘Man-of-the-match’ awards in their respective matches and they all received a cash award of Rs 1,000 each.
Results
Pool-A: Namdhari XI 2 (Inderpal Singh 24th, Gurjinder Singh 33rd) beat Abhi Foundation 1 (Manish Rana 35th). Man-of-the-match: Karandeep Singh (Namdhari XI).
Indian Oil 2 (Roshan Minz 52nd, Prabhjot Singh 69th) drew with Rhema Sports 2 (Harjot Singh 62nd, Sanjay Bir 70th).
Man-of-the-match: Gurpreet Singh (Rhema Sports).
Punjab National Bank 2 (Jitender Saroha 27th, Ajitesh Roy 57th) beat Central Railway 2 (Affan Yusuf 43rd, 68th).
Man-Friends of-the-match: Affan Yusuf (Central Railway).
Sunday fixtures
8.00 am: Central Secretariat vs Union Bank of India (Pool-B).
2.00 pm: Air India vs SAI (Pool-B).
3.45 pm: ONGC vs BEG (Pool-B).
5.30 pm: Central Railway vs Rhema Sports (Pool-A).