KOLKATA: It was quite a rollercoaster ride for Jason Cummings at the Salt Lake Stadium on Monday.
The Australian attacker scored a brace in between his botched penalty 'assist' for his fellow countrymate Dimitri Petratos as Mohun Bagan SG left it late to down Maziya Sports & Recreation Club 2-1 in the AFC Cup.
With back-to-back wins, Juan Ferrando's side is leading Group D with six points. Bangladesh's Basundhara Kings - who beat Odisha FC 3-1 in the day's early match - and Maziya have three points each.
In a team game, an individual often overshadows the outcome. Cummings had one such day, enduring along with the home fans the ebb and flow of emotional extremity.
Cummings put Bagan in front with a sumptuous strike from the edge of the box in the 28th minute, setting his team's tone for what was looking like another smooth sailing against the visitors from Maldives.
Then came the most talked-about incident of the match.
As Mohun Bagan's Albanian forward Armando Sadiku earned a penalty in the 40th minute, Cummings stepped up and stood over the ball.
Ten months ago, Cummings was up against Lionel Messi's Argentina in the World Cup's round-of-16 clash before Australia went down 1-2 to the eventual champions in Qatar.
On Monday, to everyone's surprise, he tried to do a Messi and made a mess of it.
During his Barcelona days, Messi instead of taking the penalty passed the ball from the spot for Luis Suarez to score against Celta Vigo in a La Liga match in 2016.
Replicating a similar move, Cummings tried to turn his spot-kick into an assist for an onrushing Dimitri Petratos - a fellow Australian who played in the 2018 World Cup. Whatever pre-match planning was transpired between the two Australians, the move backfired spectacularly as Maziya's Sebastian Antic reacted faster, rushing in from the edge of the box to clear the danger before Petratos could get a touch to it.
If Cummings' brazenness surprised everyone in the stands, Maziya made it more dramatic, notching up the equalizer just on the cusp of halftime, with Tomoki Wada beating Bagan goalkeeper Vishal Kaith with a powerful strike.
The game had assumed a pattern since then, the likes of Hugo Boumous, Sadiku, Liston Colaco and Sahal Abdul Samad taking aim at the goal one by one and Maziya goalkeeper denying them with a series of spectacular saves.
Just when it looked like Ferrando's team had themselves to blame for dropping points at home, Cummings achieved his moment of salvation at the death. Sahal set Cummings up with an exquisite pass and the Australian sealed the deal for his team with another perfect strike, this time from inside the box.
