Indian golfers dominated the top half
of the leaderboard with the trio of Shubhankar Sharma, S Chikkarangappa and Gaganjeet Bhullar grabbing the tied third spot after Round 2 of the USD300,000
Bashundhara Bangladesh
Open here today.
As many as three Indians, Shubhankar (66-68), Chikkarangappa (68-66) and Bhullar (67-67) have identical totals of nine-under 133.
They are two shots behind the leader, Thitiphun Chuayprakong of Thailand, who added a round of 66 to his first round 65 to total 11-under 131. First round leader, Lee Soomin (64-69) is sole second.
Apart from the Indian trio tied at third, Rahil Gangjee (69-67) and Rahul Bajaj (67-69) were tied-10th at six-under 136.
Other Indians making the cut included Abhijit Chadha (72 -67) at tied-27th, Sujjan Singh (71-70) and Shankar Das (71- 70) are tied-43rd and Khalin Joshi (70-72) and Amardip Malik (74-68) are tied-53rd.
Abhinav Lohan, Honey Baisoya and Ashok Kumar missed the cut. A total of 70 players made the halfway cut set at one- over-par 143 at the Bashundhara Bangladesh Open.
Chikka made up for a slow start to the round where he nailed only one birdie against eight pars to turn in 34. He dropped a shot on 10 but bounced back splendidly with a birdie-birdie-eagle from 12th to 14th. He also closed with another birdie on 18 after sinking a 25-footer.
"I was playing alright on the front nine. I stumbled with a bogey on 10 and I didn't hit a good drive on 11 but the turning point came on the 12 where I holed a 15-footer for birdie and then made a second straight birdie on 13 before chipping in for eagle from just off the green on 14," said the 22-year-old Indian.
Shubhankar marred his otherwise perfect card with a double-bogey on 12 but was still delighted to put himself in contention for a maiden win on the region's premier Tour.
"I played better yesterday but today was good too. I got off to a good start with a birdie on 10 but made a double- bogey on 12 after hitting it into the bunker and duffed two shots from there. I just told myself to forget about the double-bogey and move on from there," said the 19-year-old.
