Zahira coast to second win with ease
Zahira coasted to their second successive win with a comfortable 24-8 win over Science College, Mt. Lavinia, who crashed to their third successive defeat at Zahira ground in Maradana yesterday.
The Zahirians, one of the two teams coming back to the top division, came into the game with confidence after their win against Dharmaraja in the first assignment and kept up to the expectations of their supporters. In fact the match was expected to be a closely contested affair but it was not to be, as the Zahirians dominated proceedings and gave their opponents some torrid moments.
Zahira, after taking a comfortable 19-3 lead at the breather accumulated their points through four tries and two conversions against the solitary unconverted try and a penalty scored by Science.
It was Zahira who made the first scoring in the ninth minute in a melee with prop forward Rishard Mohamed going over for a try which gave fullback Althaf Saad an easy kick at goal to lead 7-0.
They continued to give their opponents some anxious moments and even though they missed scoring opportunities, still succeeded to breach the opponent’s defence in the 26th minute with centre Suhaad Endra squeezing through for a try down the left corner flag. With the conversion going astray they extended the lead to 12-0.
Science, undeterred, went on the attack and their effort saw them being offered a penalty in the 30th minute, which fly half Oshada Perera made no mistake to reduce the deficit. From there on, the two sides shared the honours and Zahira, after getting an opportunity, made use of it with a last minute try before the short whistle scored by fly half Hakeem Chunchi. With an easy conversion from Althaf Saad had Zahira in the lead 19-3 at the breather.
On the resumption, the Zahirians got into action and they surprised their opponents with centre Sharik Shaif going over for a first minute unconverted try to increase their lead to 24-3. The two sides, as in the first half, grassed scoring opportunities and it took another 15 minutes before the next scoring was done by Science in the 16th minute, as flyhalf Oshada Perera succeeded to go over for an unconverted try.
That was the last scoring to be done, as with injuries sustained to some of the players, the game slowed down and Zahira came out victorious with ease, showing that they are a side to take note in the coming weeks.