Melbourne, Jan 10 (IANS): Avani Prashanth returned a superb score of 5-under 68 and went up the leaderboard to the second place with one round to go in Australian Masters of Amateurs. Avani, playing in Melbourne, added 68 to her first 71 and is now 7-under at the Par-73 course in South Golf Club.

She is one shot behind Japan’s Nika Ito (68-70) at the Par-73 South Golf Club.

Avani had two hat-tricks of birdies, one each on the two sides of the course. She had seven birdies and two bogeys. She is now 7-under for 36 holes and just one stroke behind the leader.

Avani had birdies on the third, fourth and fifth, 10th, 11th and 12th and 17th and dropped shots on the 13th and 18th.

India’s other players were once again off-colour as Heena Kang (83-85) was 69th among women.

In the men's section Max Moring of Australia (67-67) was tied for the top spot with Zackary Swanwick (67-67) at 10-under each, while Australia’s Siddharth Nadimpalli (69-67) was third at 8-under total.

India’s Rohit Narwal (76-70) improved his showing and rose to T-52 up from overnight T-79. Sandeep Yadav (84-74) was 95th.