Chowrasia maintains lead

Chowrasia shot three-under today to move to eight-under 136. With overnight pursuer Gaganjeet Bhullar only mananging one-under today, second spot was taken by a resurgent Vijay Kumar and Chowrasia’s advantage stretched to two shots.

As cold winds made things difficult, Chowrasia’s afternoon start was lukewarm. After four pars, he finally got a birdie at the par-five 14th. That was followed by another string of five straight pars before a rush of action on the back nine, starting with first four straight birdies from the second to the fifth.

But the most stunning of the lot — a 25-foot up-down putt on the par-four — was also when the purple patch ended, and he the two missed putts on the sixth and the eighth pegged him back.

Vijay also started sedately before his own birdie spree from the 17th to the second. A four-under round puts his total at six-under 138. Bhullar slipped to tied third, and was joined by Randhir Singh Ghotra at five-under.

The marquee group of Gaurav Ghei, Rahil Gangjee and Lam Chih-bing did nothing to draw the eyballs on the opening day, but the second day saw sub-par scores for all.

With six birdies and three bogeys, Gangjee had a colourful card to give in. Ghei, clearly beset by putting woes, had one terrific moment on the par-three 7th. With the round almost over and the putting lines all haywire, he sank a thirty-foot up-and-down stunner and garnished the shot with a dose of his wry humour.

Gangjee, with his 143 jumped up to tied 12th, while Ghei ended in tied 35th place, still in blue at four over 148.

leaderboard (after 36 holes)

1: SSP Chowrasia

2: Vijay Kumar

3: Gaganjeet Bhullar, Randhir Singh Ghotra

5: Karanjit Singh Sandhu, Anura Rohana, Rahul Ganapathy

8: Digvijay Singh, Himmat Singh Rai

10: Amandeep Johl, Arjun Singh