Mariners lift maiden premier title
Rowdy crowd ransack VIP lounge
Sports Reporter
Ishtiaque Ahmed sounded the board with a sensational late strike as Mariner Youngs Club celebrated the Green Delta Premier Division Hockey League when they came from two goals down to snatch the victory defeating Usha Krira Chakra by 3-2 in the championship decider yesterday.
Held at the Maulana Bhashani Hockey Stadium, in the last match of the league, Hassan Zubaer Niloy and Pushkar Khisha Mimo scored one goal each inside 18 minutes to lead Usha Krira Chakra but Mariners reduced one before the break through Waqas Sharif and Ishtiaque shined lately to strike twice to snatch the victory for Mariner Youngs.
In the last match of the Super Six phase, Mariner Youngs Club needed simply a draw for the championship as they bounced back to lead the point table from 15 matches overtaking Usha, who were the table toppers up to 14 matches.
The last match almost turned into final encounter when Usha were in must win position to be champions and Mariner needed a draw when the latter made it success defeating the leaders. The win gave Mariners their first ever title in premier hockey league.
But some unexpected incidents outshined the excitement of the match when some of the Mariners supporters and the officials showed their outburst and ransacked the VIP box and also the VIP gallery when they split up the chairs and threw the broken chairs into the ground.
The incident spread out from the ground when Omani umpire Ibrahim show a green card to Usha player Niloy but Toufique of Mariners demanded it for yellow and went to pressure the umpires, but without any serious reason supporters came to rupture the VIP box and VIP gallery and the match forced to stop for 13 minutes.
However, the match was onset with Usha Krira Chakra took the early domination and also took lead on 13th minute when Hassan Jubair Niloy marked the target to make the breakthrough with a powerful hit after having the ball possession with Mariners Tomas failed to stop a long ball of Aleem Belal (1-0).
In fact it would the second goal for Usha when Niloy could contact a ball came to his way after Krishna Kumar and Sarwar combination but the forward being left almost free just a hand-shake distance to goal-line in the very second minute.
Usha, after taking the lead playing with full authority doubled the advantage on 16th minute with Pushkar Khisha Mimo sent the ball into net with an excellent reverse hit having the ball from Niloy (2-0).
Mariners trying to bounce back when Waqas Sharif scored a goal when the Pakistani forward downed the ball of Ershad Hossains reverse hit on 26th minute (2-1).
Ishtiaq Ahmed pushed a Tomas cross and the ball went into the net and umpire also whistled for goal but Usha demanded for review and the goal was cancelled on 35th.
Arshad Hossain leveled the tally on 50th minute with a gentle push from the goal-mouth melee, which was enough to confirm Mariners championship. But Ishtiaq Ahmed sealed the victory for the team to end the lead on a winning not in the last match when he brilliantly sent the ball into the post with a close range effort before a minute of the final whistle (3-2).
Mominul Haque Sayeed, chairman of the Mariners Hockey team announced US $ 10,000 US dollars for the players.
Rasel Mahmud Jimmy of Mohammedans became the highest scorer with 37 goals, while Aleem Bell of Usha became second with 26 goals.
