Greater Noida, Oct 30 (IANS) Vaishavi Sinha played the only under-par round on Day 2 to grab the lead in leg 13 of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour at Jaypee Greens here Thursday.

She carded the day’s lowest score of 1 under 71 in difficult conditions as overnight leader Sharmila Nicollet slipped to the second position.

Playing after a gap of over seven months, Vaishavi showed great composure and carded just one bogey on the fourth hole in the front nine. She made up for the lone error and carded two birdies on the 11th and 17th in the back nine and finished with 145, two strokes clear of Sharmila.

Sharmila couldn’t keep the momentum going. She carded a bogey on the third and before she could recover, she stumbled into a quadruple bogey at the par-3 fifth. She tried her best to make a comeback with three birdies on the eighth, 11th and 13th but a bogey on 16th did not help her cause. She finished with 4 over 76 to take her total to 147.

Following Sharmila are veteran Smriti Mehra and Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal who are tied third with 149.

Smriti struggled in front nine as she carded four bogies on second, fourth, sixth and eighth. She also carded a double bogey on the ninth with a lone birdie on the third. She played a bogey free back nine to finish at 5 over 77. Gursimar carded five bogies on the second, seventh, 14th, 17th and 18th. She also carded two birdies on the ninth and 12th and finished at 3 over 75.

Pune’s Shweta Galande started cautiously but faltered with five consecutive bogies on seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th. She tried to control her game but with bogies on the last two holes, she finished with 7 over 79. She is fifth with 151.

Ankita Tiwana is sixth with a total score of 153. She carded seven bogies on first, second, third, eighth, ninth, 17th and 18th. She also carded a double bogey on the fourth with three birdies on the sixth, 13th and 14th.

Preetinder Kaur and Pallavi Jain are tied seventh with identical scores of 155. Saaniya Sharma and Neha Tripathi lie at tied ninth.

The Rs.5 lakh event culminates Friday.