Gaurav Ghei slips to eighth place

Indian ace Gaurav Ghei, who led the first round, shot par 72 in the second and slipped to the joint eighth place as six made the cut while five fell by the wayside at the halfway stage of the Lexus International golf tournament in Bangkok on Friday.

Ghei, with a two round total of 137 (65, 72), is two off the pace against the trio of Taiwan's Chung Chun-Hsing, South Africa's Van Rensburg Nico and Kamps Craig all of whom are joint leaders with 135.

Defending champion Jeev Milkha Singh, who was lying at joint 34th place on Thursday with a par 72 first round, launched himself into contention with a six over 66 to aggregate 138 and climbed to joint 12th place.

Taiwanese veteran Chung Chung Hising, overcame an insect sting on the arm, fired the day's joint lowest round of eight under par 64 to emerge joint leader with a total of 9 under 135.

India's Amritinder Singh shot 4 under 68 to move up to joint 22nd slot with a two round score of 140 (72, 68), Jyoti Randhawa carded one under 71 for a total of 3 under par 141 (70,71) to be at joint 24th place.

Calcutta's Arjun Atwal and Chandigarh's Amandeep Johl, both carded identical successive second round of one under 71 and were joint 35 with two under 142.

Digvijay Singh hit one over 73 and was at joint 51st place with an aggregate of par 144.

The cut was applied at one over 145 and 70 golfers made it to the final two rounds.

Jeev fired seven birdies against one bogey in his homeward nine to keep his hopes alive.

"I will do better in next two round" said India's ace golfer.

The Indians who failed to make the cuts were Uttam Mundy, Indrajit Bhalotia, Amit Dube, Harmeet Kalhon and Kanwar Sekhon.

Mundy shot two over 74 and missed the cut by a stroke as he had two round total of 146 (72, 74) and ended joint 71st.

Bhalotia shot three over 75 for 5 over for 149 (74, 75) to finish at joint 93rd.

Dube had second successive four over 76 round and he ended at joint 115 place with eight under 152 (76,76).

Chandigarh professional Kahlon had two over 74 round and totalled 153 (79, 74) for joint 116th place.

Sekhon had a dismal 16 over 88 and finished 136 in the field of 142 with a two round aggregate of 22 over par 166 (78,88).

The 45-year-old Chung blitzed the course with eight birdies despite two painful insect bites on his left arm. With a nine under par 135 aggregate, Chung heads a crowded leaderboard with Van Ransburg who posted an impressive 65 and Kamps who shot 68.

England's Simon Dyson also carded a bogey-free 64 to give himself a shot for a third title in his rookie season and is joint fourth with American Aaron Meeks and Thailand's Boonchu Ruangkit and Thongchai Jaidee on 136.

UNI