The enormity of Parnita's achievement is best gauged by the fact that none of the other main contenders could come to terms with the intricacies of the course. The next best score was four-over by local golfer Lalitha Balasubramaniam and Vandana Agarwal, last year's runner-up. And the three at the top of the table at the halfway mark, Urvashi Sethi Sodhi, Anouk Chanmugam and Anjali Chopra, returned cards of nine-over, eight-over and seven-over. With a round to go, Anjali and Urvashi have a cumulative score of 230, four strokes behind Parnita while Anouk is a further stroke behind.

Parnita took some time to get into her stride. She bogeyed the 3rd and 5th before notching up a birdie on the 6th. She dropped a stroke on the 9th and 11th before she found her touch with birdies on the 14th and 16th. But she dropped a stroke on that bugbear of holes -- the 18th -- and had to be content with a 74.

Anjali Chopra, who had returned a par round on Thursday, was in all sorts of troubles on Friday. Her problems started early when she double-bogeyed the 2nd. Still unable to gain some control over her game, she dropped strokes on the 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th and 10th before recovering some ground with a birdie on the 156-yard three par 13th. But a bogey on the 16th saw her return with an unenviable card and if she hopes to get the better of Parnita on Saturday, there will have to be marked improvement in her game.

Urvashi, the holder and the leader at the end of the first two rounds, had the kind of card that one sees in their bad dreams. On the outward journey, she dropped strokes on the 5th, 8th and 9th. If anything, it was worse on the back nine when she double-bogeyed the 16th in addition to dropping strokes on the 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th. But because of her consistent showing on the first two days, she remains in contention for the title.

Anouk, after faring pretty well on the first two days, found the going difficult on a course that was playing long. She dropped strokes on the 2nd, 5th and 7th before notching up a birdie on the 9th. But on the return journey, little went right for her and she had bogeys on the 10th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th. Five strokes behind the leader, Anouk, in racing parlance, can only have an upsetting chance.

Leading Scores

Parnita Garewal 226 (77,75,74); Anjali Chopra 230 (79,72,79), Urvashi Sethi Sodhi 230 (76,73,81), Anouk Chanmugam 231 (77,74,80), Vandana Agarwal 237 (81,78,78). Monita Lal Qureshi 238 (79,78,81); Shruti Khanna 238 (79,77,82); Lalitha Balasubramaniam 239 (78,83,78), Irena Brar 248 (84,83,81), Shalini Mallick 248 (77,83,88).