Mohamed Abou-Treika scored twice from the penalty spot to cancel out goals from Ahmed Al-Muhammadi and Hani Aboul-Fadl respectively.

The result means Ahli lost the Egyptian league summit to Zamalek, who beat Arab Contractors 1-0 earlier on Wednesday, for the first time this season.

Ahli, who have three games in hand, are one points behind leaders Zamalek who have 35 points.

The newly-crowned African Super Cup winners fielded a second string line-up against Mahalla due to the numerous injuries within the team's ranks.

Ahli coach Manuel Jose also chose to rest key-players like Abou-Treika and Emad Al-Nahhas to avoid them picking up yellow cards ahead of Saturday's game against Zamalek.

Al-Muhammadi grabbed a shock lead for the visitors when he towered to a corner and headed home past Ahli keeper Essam Al-Hadari in the 29th minute.

Substitute Abou-Treika leveled for Ahli from a 54th minute penalty after Ahmed Shedid was brought down in the Mahalla box.

Aboul-Fadl regained the lead for Mahalla in bizarre fashion as his right flank cross took a deflection off Ahli skipper Hadi Khashaba before settling in the far corner of Al-Hadari's net in the 79th minute.

Three minutes later Abou-Treika was tripped in the area and converted the resulting spot kick himself to salvage one point for Ahli