The Daily Star began the Kool-BSJA Media Cup with a convincing 3-1 win against former champions Channel 24 in a round of 32 fixture at the BFF Artificial Turf in Motijheel today.

A brace from lone forward Mazhar Uddin and another cool-headed finish from Nabid Yeasin, last season's top scorer for DS, saw the side bounce back from the concession of an early goal.   

The players of the nation's leading English-language daily complained of fatigue within the first three minutes of the match, which was to be expected considering their only practice session that featured four players and a 10-minute kick-about in their office premises. One of the most enthusiastic participants of that training session, Shabab Chowdhury, could not, however, carry his enthusiasm till the game day as he went AWOL on the eve of it -- a usual phenomenon from the mischievous young individual. 

With players refusing to track back, the DS' two-man defence -- comprising skipper Samama Rahman, Orchid Chakma, debutant Siam Almas, and Sabbir Hossain, all of whom played in rotation -- could not keep up with Channel 24's three-man frontline and conceded a goal within a few minutes of the first half. 

Although the slow start to tournaments is characteristic of the team, given the fact that all the matches in the tournament are knockout games, The Daily Star's players, who were evidently groggy during the early morning kick-off, quickly woke up.

They netted an emphatic equaliser within 30 seconds.

After fluffing numerous passes, captain Samama finally managed to eke a ball through played to midfielder Khalid Hossain, who conjured a delicate turn and glided away from two defenders before finding the team's poacher, Mazhar, with a brilliant ball. Mazhar, who claimed the man of the match award, made no mistake at the near post.

Minutes later, The Daily Star found the go-ahead goal, Khalid this time combining with Nabid, who scored. Khalid's crisp pass -- once again justifying the midfielder's in-house nickname of 'LM10' -- was received and converted by Nabid, who redeemed himself following his earlier defensive error.   

However, The Daily Star refused to choose the easy path, with the team's own defenders Sabbir -- who returned to the side after one year of hiatus -- and Orchid playing in two delectable crosses for Channel 24's forwards.

Only the stalwart between the posts, Ahsan Habib, managed to keep Channel 24 from finding an equaliser, including the highlight of the day when he got down close to his body to deny a one-on-one chance.

Finally, in the waning minutes of the second half and with Channel 24 launching all-out attacks, Samama won the ball in midfield and advanced ahead of the chasing pack. With a defender closing in, he went for one of his trademark touches of genius, conjuring images of El Phenomenon as he did a reverse step-over to get the defender off balance before shifting to his right foot and playing in Mazhar for his second.

Just as soon as the duo -- Samama and Mazhar -- had combined for the final goal, a distant cheer could be heard as someone from the sidelines shouted, "Shakib-Tamim", referring to the frosty relationship between the two colleagues just like the two Bangladeshi cricketing stalwarts. 

Mazhar could have easily completed a memorable hattrick two years after he stormed off the pitch because his teammates had made fun of his finishing abilities, but the old foe reared its head, and Mazhar, one-on-one with the goalkeeper again, was caught in two minds. He played neither a cutback to the onrushing Nabid, nor a shot, and the ball rolled away harmlessly.

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Kool-BSJA Media Cup football gets rolling on Tuesday

Up next, The Daily Star will take on newcomers The Business Standard in tomorrow's knockout game.