Mohammedan rout Abahani

Foreign Joaquim Menini and Taswar Abbas found the target alongside Rajib Das as defending champions Mohammedan bounced back in the Green Delta Insurance Premier Division Hockey League with an emphatic 4-0 win over archrivals Abahani at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.

A 10th win from 11 outings helped the Black and Whites close gap on leaders Dhaka Mariner Youngs Club, who have 33 points from 11 matches while Mohammedan and Abahani have 30 and 27 points respectively from 11 matches.

The top five teams in the 12-team table -- currently Mariners, Mohammedan, Abahani, Bangladesh SC and Sonali Bank -- will lock horns in a Super Five battle on Friday with all participating teams playing each other once to decide the title.

However, the tie between Abahani and Mohammedan was always bound to draw attention and the inclusion of Dutch and Argentina players alongside Pakistani and Indian recruits drew more eyes to the high-voltage match.

Menini, a member of Argentina's Rio Olympic gold winning squad, displayed a superb performance and scored a brace in his debut match while Abahani's three Dutchmen found it hard to beat Mohammedan SC's goalkeeper Al Amin, who thwarted five to six penalty corners. Meanwhile, Dutch player Bjorn Kellerman and Rezaul Karim Babu even failed to hit the board in one-on-one situations.

Menini put Mohammad ahead in the fifth minute with a reserve hit before Pakistan's Taswar Abbas doubled the lead from a penalty corner in the 32nd minute. Rajib Das made it 3-0 in the 49th minute before Menini completed the rout with another solo effort in the 52nd minute.