KARACHI, Sept 24: Pakistan No. 1 Matloob Rana was in sixth place at the end of the penultimate round of the Hindu Open, the third leg of the Amby Valley PGAI Tour, at the Cosmo-TNGF course in Chennai on Friday. According to the information made available here, Matloob returned with a score of two-under 70 in the third round of the tournament.

With scores of 69 and 69 in the initial two rounds Matloob now has an aggregate of 209.

Indian stars Ashok Kumar, S.S.P. Chowrasia and Ranjit Singh fought it out on the third day of the Rs 1 million tournament, everyone of them looking for the top honours.

With a score of eight under 64, and a total of 17-under 199, Ashok had to share the honours with S.S.P. Chowrasia, who submitted a card of seven under-65 for the same final tally.

Ranjit, the overnight leader, with a score of one-under, slipped to third place, his final tally reading 13-under 203.

Ashok, who began the day from third place, started well by firing a birdie on the first. Continuing to attack, he birdied the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 7th, not before having bogeys on the fifth and eighth. On the return journey, Ashok did very well with birdies on the 10th, 11th, 15th, 16th and 17th.

The scores (after 54 holes):

Professionals: 1. Ashok Kumar (67, 68, 64-199), S.S.P. Chowrasia (64,70, 65-199), 3. Ranjit Singh (66, 66, 71-203), 4. Harinder Gupta (69, 69, 68-206), 5. Vijay Kumar (68, 69, 70-207), 6. Matloob Ahmed Rana (69, 69, 70-209), 7. Feroz Ali (75, 68, 67-210), 8. C. Muniappa (71, 69, 70-210), 9. Mukesh Kumar (74, 71, 67-212), Ali Sher (73, 67, 72-212).

Amateurs: 1. L. Selvadurai (ONGC) (73, 73, 73-219).—PPI