LAHORE, April 12: 'Dosti' comprising a pair each from India and Pakistan are the joint leaders with Formidable and Data Steel with 64 Victory Points apiece on the first day of the 11th Balijee International bridge championship at Lahore Gymkhana on Thursday.

Dosti 64; Formidable 64; Data Steel 64; Strikers 58; Lums 57; Allana 56; Sherdils 55; Giants 55; Bokharis 55; Silver Star 54.

Dosti, with the Indian pair of Ravi Sawhney-Puneet and Sarfraz Butt and Sikandar Butt from Pakistan, kept their winning strides till the third round. In the first segment they defeated Basanti 25-04 and then Silver Stars 25-04 and lost narrowly to Formidable, the defending champions.

Formidable after winning both the matches from Bokhari 23-7 and Delhi Bridge Association 25-04, kept their winning strides against Dosti. Subhash Gupta, B. Satayanarayan, V.R. Venkatraman and Sunit Choksi are representing Formidable.

India's national team, Dhampur Sugar Mills, having Ashok Goel, Debasish Roy, Kamal Mukherjee and Pritish Kushari is here to test their mettle. They won the first match against 'Ireland' 18-12 but lost to Pakistan's national team, Allana in the second round 18-12 and third round match to Silver Stars.

Earlier, Allana had won a tough match against Candyland 19-11. Allana comprised World Master, Jan-e-Alam Fazli, A. R. Rehman Allana, Rashid Jafer, Sarfraz Khan, Tahir Masud and Javed Ahmed had 56 VPs.

Data Steel won all the three matches 23-7 against Potohar Force, Excelsior 18-11 and Sherdils 18-12 to remain at the leadersboard. The team had the services of Tariq Rasheed Khan, Pervaiz Mirza, Rashidul Ghazi, Hasan Jawad and Tehsin Gheewala.

Lahore's Sherdils, Giants and Bokharis are joint at fifth place with 55 V.Ps each.

Sherdil are performing impressively, they also have won both the matches from Invaders 20-10 and Solox 23-7. Brig. Rashid, Asad, Yaqoob and Safdar are playing for the team.

In all 38 top teams of Indo-Pak are vying for honours and lucrative prizes. On the first two days it will be team contest to be played over 10 sessions.

Out of 38, nine teams are from neighbouring country, India, eleven from Karachi, six from Islamabad, one each from Hyderabad and Abbottabad and ten from Lahore. Out of these contestants, national teams from India and Pakistan are also competing and their encounter would be worth seeing as they will be meeting for the 14th Asia and Middle East Bridge Championship next month at Karachi.

The defending champions, Formidable are at the brink of scoring hat trick by winning this time. Top 10 teams are at the end of three rounds:

Dosti 64; Formidable 64; Data Steel 64; Strikers 58; Lums 57; Allana 56; Sherdils 55; Giants 55; Bokharis 55; Silver Star 54.