KARACHI: Karachi Port Trust (KPT) secured the bragging rights for now.

Zafar Majeed’s strike six minutes from time secured a 2-1 win for KPT against K-Electric on Wednesday, and also the honours in the Karachi derby in a hi-octane Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) clash which also saw two missed penalties.

Clashes between the two sides usually prove to be high-scoring ones — most notably the 6-4 win for KE two seasons ago — and this one seemed to be following the script when KE were awarded a penalty 19 minutes in at the KPT Stadium.

Mohammad Rasool blazed wide and there was further drama two minutes into the second-half when Mohammad Bin Younis missed from the spot.

KPT, however, took the lead from another penalty in the 50th when Zahid scored with a low shot past Jahangir.

In an end-to-end match, Abdul Rehman levelled matters with a well-taken shot 12 minutes later but Zafar managed to squeeze through the KE defence to ensure KPT maintained their perfect record to the season with two wins out of two.

“The missed penalty cost us the match,” KE coach Akbar Ali told Dawn after the match. “Had we scored, the match would’ve had a different tempo and probably a different result.”

Rasool, who had scored in KE’s 1-0 win in their opening game of the season against National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), seemed assured as he went to take the penalty but to the utter shock of Akbar, his team-mates and maybe himself, he shot wide.

KE had earlier gone close to scoring barely 90 seconds in when Abid Ghafoor missed with only the goalkeeper to beat.

KPT’s first chance came in the 28th when after a lovely exchange with Bin Younis, Zahid saw his shot come back off the post before Junaid Qadir drew a fine save from KE’s goalkeeper Jahangir nine minutes later.

Two minutes into the second-half, Noor Mohammad was penalised for a hand-ball inside the box but Bin Younis blazed the resulting penalty high and wide.

Three minutes later, though, Bin Younis atoned for his penalty miss when he won another spot-kick after being fouled by Umar Farooq. This time, Zahid stepped up and made no mistake to give KPT the lead.

KE are widely regarded as favourites this season to win their maiden PPFL title and the onus was on them to hit back.

After captain Mohammad Essa had missed with a spectacular right footed volley, Rehman equalised when Rasool fed him on the left and he fired it in across the KPT goalkeeper and into the net. Game on!

Rehman then had a goal disallowed for offside as KE piled on the pressure for the winner.

But they were stunned in the 84th when Zafar took a through ball before his shot went in despite Jahangir getting a touch to seal victory for his side.

“This is a good victory for the side against one of the top teams in the league,” KPT head-coach Mohammad Asif told Dawn as his side followed up their victory over Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in their opener.

“We hope to continue in the same vein and hopefully that will help us finish higher than we did last season,” added Asif whose side finished eighth last season but lead the fledgling table with six points.

Meanwhile, PIA got their campaign off and running when Zeeshan Ali scored in the final minute to give them a 2-1 win over NBP in the other PPFL match on Wednesday at the Dr. Muhammad Ali Shah Stadium.

Maqbool had given NBP the lead in the 38th minute but Mohammad Kamran levelled matters six minutes later.Zeeshan’s late intervention, however, left NBP without a point after two games.

Published in Dawn, September 25th , 2014