Neha takes lead with a 71

Neha Tripathi put herself into title contention yet again with a fine one-under 71 in the second round of the 10th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour on Thursday.

Neha, with a total of 141, holds a slender one-shot lead at the Clover Greens in Hosur. Vani Kapoor rebounded from her modest first-round showing with the week’s best card of three-under 69 to move to tied-2nd alongside Amandeep Drall (71, 71).

One shot behind them is Gaurika Bishnoi (73-70). The scores this week have been consistently good with even the fifth-placed Tvesa Malik (70-74) at even par.

Neha was cruising with three birdies and no bogeys till the 14th hole when she dropped a double bogey on par-4 15th and then ended with three pars.

Vani, playing her third domestic event of the season, was bogey-free with three birdies, all on the front nine -- first, seventh and eighth holes -- and she had a series of 10 pars after that.

On a day when the golf course yielded a good number of birdies, Amandeep had a double bogey and three birdies, while Gaurika bogeyed the first but made up with three birdies after that, including one on the last hole. Gaurika was the only player to birdie the tough 18th on the second day.

Leading scores (after 36 holes): 141: Neha Tripathi (70, 71); 142: Vani Kapoor (73, 69), Amandeep Drall (71, 71); 143: Gaurika Bishnoi (73, 70); 144: Tvesa Malik (70, 74).