Defending champion Shiv Kapur of Delhi made his presence felt after the day's best card of one over par 71 for a total of 150, six strokes behind the leader. Giving him company on the same total is citymate Ashok Kumar. Ashok fired another round of five over par 75 to stay in contention.

Mumbai's Amit Nigam carded a seven over par 77 to take his total to 153. He started well with birdies on the first and fourth but failed to keep up the tempo.

Like yesterday, Syal started with a birdie on the par-five first to give indications of a repeat of first round heroics. But that was not to be as the 16-year-old from Chennai dropped four shots for a front nine round of 38. The back nine was no different with four bogeys and a birdie on the finalfor a six-stroke lead ahead of his nearest opponents-- Kapur and Ashok.

Kapur had an erratic front nine with consecutive birdies on the fourth and fifth and dropping as many as five strokes. The back nine, however, was bogey free studded with birdies on 16th and 18th.

Leading Scores (after 36 holes)

Group A (15-17 yrs) -- 144: Sandeep Syal (68+76); 150: Shiv Kapur (79+71), Ashok Kumar (75+75); 153: Amit Nigam (76+77); 154: Sandy Lehal (76+78); 155: Suleman Ali (78+77); 156: Ranjit Singh (78+78), Sunder Singh (75+81)

13-14 -- 101 Lakhan Singh (83+78); 166: S Nagraj (84+82); 168: Vikram Nandrajog (82+86); 175: Sarvar Hussain (91+84); 177: Arjunveer S Chugh (88+89), Joseph Chakole (89+88) 11-12 -- 168: Aditya Singh (87+81); 173: JS Dullet (86+87); 177: Karan Vasudeva (90+87); 178: Dheeraj Sareen (88+90)

10 & under -- 170: Richard Hilton (85+85); 177: Varun Wadhwa (88+89)