Usha Krira Chakra retained the Club Cup Hockey trophy with 3-1 victory over Abahani Limited at the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium on Wednesday.
The win gave Usha Krira Chakra their fourth Club Cup title, putting them level with Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited in nine editions of the tournament. It was also their second consecutive victory over Abahani in the final.
Fazle Hossain Rabbi, Mainul Islam Kowshik and Krishna Kumar scored for the champions, while Pushkar Khisha Mimo scored the consolation goal for Abahani.
Usha, who advanced to the final on the back of 28 goals in three matches, continued their goal-fest in the fourth minute of the final when Rabbi found the back of the net off a Krishna cut-back.
After taking the lead, Usha adopted a counter-attacking strategy, resulting in young national team hitman
Kowshik doubling the margin with a speedy hit after being set up by veteran forward Maksudul Alam Habul in the 45th minute.
Usha made it 3-0 in the 66th minute when Krishna made no mistake and hit the back of the net.
Mimo pulled a goal back for Abahani just one minute before the final whistle.
Mamunur Rashid, who won his second title as Usha coach, gave all the credit to his players.
‘All credit goes to the boys, who really played as a unit. They easily adopted the game strategy because most of them had played under me in the Navy team,’ said Rashid.
Abahani advisory coach Mahbub Harun blamed his forward line for their failure.
The defence of Usha played really well and blocked our forwards on every attempt,’ said Harun.
The Premier League Hockey will get underway on January 18 with seven teams participating in it.
-With New Age input
