Ahmedabad, Jan 6 (IANS): Overnight leaders Mehar Atwal and Kiran Matharu carded identical scores of five-over 77 in the second round to retain their lead in the first leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour here on Wednesday.

Two strokes behind them was Delhi’s Vani Kapoor with a total score of 154 after she carded 78 in the second round. The Rs.7,00,000 event will culminate on Thursday at the Kensville Golf & Country Club.

Delhi’s Mehar struggled with the conditions and carded three consecutive bogeys on the first, second and third holes. She tried to control the damage with a birdie on the ninth hole, but a birdie-less back nine with three bogeys on the 10th, 15th and 17th holes meant that she had to share the lead with Kiran with a total score of 152 after the second round. 

Kiran Matharu too struggled to stitch together a series of consistent shots and played a birdie-less round with five bogeys.

Delhi’s Vani carded 78 on the second day to maintain her overnight third position. Her error prone round consisted of five bogeys along with a double bogey on the 10th. She carded the lone birdie of her round on the 12th hole to finish with a total score of 154 after 36 holes. 

Chandigarh’s Saaniya Sharma carded 75, the best round of the day, to jump in fourth position. She carded three birdies on the fifth, 15th and 18th holes while dropping shots on the eighth, 13th, 14th and 16th. She could have finished higher but a double bogey on the third hole meant that she had to be content with the fourth position with a total score of 155.

Panchkula’s Amandeep Drall returned with a card of 76 to take the fifth place on 158, while Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal and Delhi’s Ankita Tiwana shared the sixth spot on 160. 

Following them are Kolkata’s Smriti Mehra and Pune’s Shweta Galande who were placed eighth and ninth, respectively.