Abahani missed out on a great opportunity to cut Mohammedan's four-point lead in the Bangladesh Premier League after being held to a goalless draw by their archrivals in their 12th round match in Cumilla on Saturday.

The Sky Blues played with a numerical advantage for more than half of the match after Mohammedan full-back Mahbub Alam had ruthlessly brought down Abahani forward Sumon Reza in the 42nd minute of this otherwise dull encounter.

Abahani, however, failed to make that numerical advantage count, courtesy of some wayward finishing and a few excellent saves from Mohammedan goalkeeper Sujon Hossain.

The draw means Mohammedan stay four clear of Abahani with 31 points from 12 matches with only six games remaining.

Sumon had the first chance to break the deadlock in the ninth minute of the game when he had a free header in front of goal, but his effort went across the face of goal.

Mohammedan tried a few long-range attempts in the first half, but nothing worth testing Abahani keeper Mitul Marma as the game, which saw a number of disruptions due to crowd trouble, meandered into the second half.

The best chance of the match came to Abahani in the 66th minute when Mohammedan centre-back Mehdi Hasan Mithu was dispossessed right in front of the box by Abahani captain Raphael Augusto. Mohammedan goalkeeper Sujon saw the danger early and hared out of the box to clear the ball, only as far as Mohammad Ibrahim, who however blasted the ball over the target.

Sujon then made a string of fine saves as Abahani stepped up the attack in search of a winning goal while Muzaffarov, at the other end, failed to hit the target despite having the Abahani goalkeeper out of his position.

Meanwhile, five-time defending champions Bashundhara Kings failed to take advantage of this result as they, too, were held to a goalless draw by Rahmatganj in Munshiganj. The outcome means Kings remained in third position with 21 points, followed by Rahmatganj on 19.

There were goals, though, in the other match of the day between Brothers Union and Chittagong Abahani, which the former won 2-0 at the Mymensingh venue. Goals from Zakaria Darboe and Mfon Udoh helped Brothers move to sixth position with 18 points while the port city side remained bottom of the 10-team table with only three points.