Jeev's first nine, over which he was four under, suggested that this was his day. But then, in one stretch of four holes, he dropped four strokes, that left him with smoke coming out of his ears as he finished his round. Jeev, earlier, shot an eagle on the 12th and birdies on the 14th and 17th. Going out in 32, he looked set for big things before the vagaries of golf brought him down. He dropped a stroke each on fourth and and sixth and then came the disastrous seventh, which he double bogeyed.

Vijay Kumar carded a three-under 69, the same as Shiv. He had an eagle on the eighth, which he followed with a birdie on the ninth, his last two holes for the day.

Amandeep Johl had a roller coaster ride, with one eagle, one double bogey,four birdies and five bogies. Daniel Chopra recovered from his poor first round with a 70, which included an eagle on the eighth, while Gaurav Ghei shot a par round after his first round 73. Jyoti Randhawa with a 70 shared second spot with Vijay Kumar and Mundy, all of whom now have three-under 141.

Scores after 36 holes (cut applied at eight over 152; 46 pros and one amateur made the cut)

140: Shiv Prakash (71, 69); 141: Vijay Kumar (72, 69), Uttam Singh Mundy (70, 71), Jyoti Randhawa (71, 70); 143: Amandeep Johl (70, 73), Jeev Milkha Singh (72, 71), Rafiq Ali (73, 70); 144: Pappan (71, 73), Mohd. Maqbool (74, 70), Amritinder Singh (71, 73), Ali Sher (72, 72); 145: Daniel Chopra (75, 70); Basad Ali (73, 72), Gaurav Ghei (73, 72); 146: Manohar Dike ((71, 75), Rohtas Singh (69, 77), Indrajit Bhalotia (70, 76), Mukesh Kumar (73, 73), Vivek Bhandari (73, 73), Mohammed Islam (75, 71); 147: Vishal Singh (72, 75), Bunty Randhawa (74, 73), James Joseph ((76, 71).