Bhullar, who was overnight tied fifth, began well as he birdied the second. The Asian Tour regular then missed an up and down from the bunker on the fifth and therefore, dropped a stroke. Bhullar garnered another birdie on the seventh to make the turn at one under.

On the par-five 10th, he converted a 20 feet putt for eagle. He picked up his last birdie of the round on the par-four 11th when his lob wedge approach shot landed one foot short of the flag. Bhullar bogeyed the 18th to close with three under 69 as he missed yet another up and down from the bunker.

'I should have had a much lower score today but I'm still trying to adjust to the speed of the greens. I'm focusing on my short game at the moment as my ball-striking has been pretty good,' said Bhullar.

Ali Sher, the old war horse, returned even par 72 in round two to be placed just one stroke behind the joint leaders in tied third place. Anura Rohana turned in a one under 71 to share third place with Ali Sher.

Bangalore-based amateur Abhishek Jha (66, 73), shares fifth place along with Vinod Kumar (67, 72), Digvijay Singh (71, 68) and Raj Randhawa (68, 71) at five under 139. Jha, the overnight leader, slipped to tied fifth as he carded one over 73 Thursday.

Bangalore golfers R. Srinivas (three under 141) and Gaurav Diwan (one under 143) are placed 10th and tied 13th, respectively while Mysore's Rahul Ganapathy lies tied 21st at one over 145. Mukesh Kumar's two over 146 total placed him tied 28th.