Pune’s Aditya Bhandarkar was just one shot behind the duo after carding a round of 71 and Arshdeep Tiwana, Pawan Kumar and brothers Simarjeet Singh and Jasjeet Singh shared the fourth spot at even-par for the tournament.

Jha, the number two player on the merit list and last year’s winner of this tournament, was one rung further down at one-over while top-ranked Khan got off to a disastrous start with a round of four-over 76 and was tied for 21 st place.

Delhi’s Vikram Rana, who returned to India late on Monday night last night after his stint at the Asian Amateur Championship, shrugged off any hint of weariness to shoot the best round of the day. He later said, “We were travelling all day yesterday and by the time I got back home it was late into the night but it seems to have had a positive effect on my game. Even though I had an eagle today, I made two or three very silly bogeys which held me back and those were mistakes I could very easily have avoided.”

Twenty-year-old Karan Taunk from Jamshedpur, fresh from a good outing at the Tata Open had a round which managed to fit in five birdies and a double bogey between an opening and finishing-hole bogey. Four of those birdies came on the first nine he played. “I got a lot of confidence from playing with the pros last week but more important for me was the way I finished at the Chandigarh Open. The fourth-place finish there gave me a lot of belief that I can perform well and I really hope I can continue like this for the remainder of the tournament,” he said.