Neha Tripathi carded 5 under 67 to retain her sole lead at the ended of the second round of the 12th leg of Hero WPGT played superbly at the Golden Greens Golf here on Thursday.
Neha in the process extended her one-shot overnight lead to two.
As the leader moved to nine-under 135 with rounds of 68 and 67, she was being chased by Riya Yadav, who after a good first round added an even better 5-under 67 for a total of 7-under 137.
Asmitha Sathish (71-70) and Gaurika Bishnoi (69-72) were tied third at 3-under 141, while Ridhima Dilawari had a late double bogey in her 70 and was sole fifth at 2-under 142.
Riya had two birdies and a bogey on the front nine and four birdies and no bogeys on the return journey. Riya, who had a hole-in-one on the eighth hole in her first round, had her solitary bogey of the day on the same hole in the second round.
Asmitha had three birdies and a bogey in her second round, while Gaurika had three birdies against three bogeys and a double in her first 15 holes. She was 2-over for the day but then found birdies on the 16th and the 18th to salvage a par round.
Agrima Manral (74-69) made a five-shot improvement from her first round and moved to tied sixth alongside Jasmine Shekar (72-71) at 1-under 143.
Tvesa Malik had a better day with seven birdies but also gave away five bogeys in her round of 70 after a first-round 75, as she was Tied-eighth with Khushi Khanijau (74-71) and Durga Nittur (74-71).
Seher Atwal, who shot 79 on the first day had a massive eight shot improvement with a 71 and she was T-18 at 6-over 150. The Hero Order of Merit leader, Sneha Singh (78-75) was T-22.
Neha, who won the 10th leg before the break in the Tour schedule, birdied the second and fifth holes for a tidy start before suffering her lone bogey on the Par-3 eighth. On the back, four birdies on the 10th, 12th, 15th and 16th ensured a good day’s work a good two-shot