Defending champion Anura Rohana of Sri Lanka carded a brilliant seven-under 65 to share the joint lead alongwith C Muniyappa of Bengaluru after the second round of the BILT Open here today.
Rohana (69-65) and Muniyappa (63-71) enjoyed a three-stroke lead with a two-round aggregate of 10-under-134 at the Rs. 1 crore event hosted at the Classic Golf & Country Club here.
Delhi's Arjun Singh and Kolkata's Shankar Das were three off the lead in tied third.
Arjun Singh and Shankar Das were joint third at seven-under 137 with rounds of 71 and 66 respectively.
Mysore's Harish K (65), Abhijit Singh Chadha of Chandigarh and Meerut's Sudhir Sharma shared fifth place at six-under-138.
The cut was declared at two-over-146. Fifty-seven professionals and two amateurs made the cut.
Rohana (69-65), who was overnight tied eighth, seemed to be in sublime touch early in his round picking up birdies on the fourth, fifth and eighth after converting 10-footers on each occasion.
The 42-year-old from Colombo then looked certain for a low score as he chipped-in from 40 feet for an eagle on the ninth to make the turn at five-under.
The reigning champion was in trouble with his drive on the 10th and as a result dropped a stroke. He, however came back stronger with two magnificent chip shots that stopped three feet from the pin for birdies on the 14th and 18th. He also sank another 10-feet birdie on the 16th. His 65 was the day's joint best score.
"I've been playing well since the last event in Jaipur where I strung together some low scores to finish in the top-10. My ball-striking has been good since last week and today my chipping was outstanding," Rohana said.
