Aurangabad's Mayor's XI Stuns Mohd Sporting

Aurangabad, Sep 7 (UNI) Mohammedan Sporting, fielding their second string team, fell at the first hurdle, losing tamely to Aurangabad's Mayor's XI in the All-India Mayor's Trophy football tournament at the MGM ground here today.

The local side dished out a wonderful game to outplay the Kolkata outfit winning by a convincing 3-0 margin. Mayor's XI, cheered vociferously by a goodly crowd, took the all-important lead in the 15th minute when their most experienced midfielder Shaikh Babar's powerful right-footer off a free kick beat the rival custodian all ends up (1-0).

The Sporting defence was tested again and in one good move (39th minute), Aurangabad's foreign player Robo sent a smart pass to the talented youngster Adnan Bin Mahfooz, who gently pushed the ball into the cage with the goalie Rupak Dutta finding himself in a hopeless position (2-0).

The local side went into the half time with a comfortable 2-0 lead. After the change of ends, it was the same story with Mayor's XI calling the shots, but missing some good goal-scoring chances.

However, in the dying moments of the game, substitute Mika, another foreign player, made it 3-0 as he made no mistake off a fine pass from Shaikh Imran.

The match also saw the referee from Delhi Rakshit flashing a red card (the first of the tourney) on the Sporting player Oskar Paul for rough play.

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