The 36-hole strokeplay event, to be decided on gross score. Nigam leads his nearest opponent Rohit Goyal by five strokes. Goyal carded a 4-over 74.In the Independence Cup doubles match-play over 18 holes on handicap, the Nath brothers, Shivas and Nohar, advanced by prevailing over Ajay Patel and Sharad Divecha on the 26th.

Akshda Parab excels

A superb bowling performance by Akshda Parab helped C D Barfiwala to record their second successive win in the five-team round-robin league of the MSSA-Colgate Inter-School girls cricket competition for the Manoramabai Apte Trophy. They defeated St Columba by five wickets at the Schools Sports Centre, Azad maidan, today.

Akshda took five wickets for 24 runs in 12 overs to restrict their rivals for 66-9 in the stipulated overs. She was well-supported by Dipsi Patel, who took three for30. Barfiwala then achieved their target with five wickets in hand in 11.3 overs.

Brief Scores
St Columba 66-9 in 25 overs (Dipsi Patel 3-30, Akshda Parab 5-24) lost to C D Barfiwala 70-5 in 11.3 overs.

Three share lead

Two rated players, Ketan Boricha (Elo 2225) and Pankaj Joshi (Elo 2100), alongwith Niraj Narwilkar shared the lead with four points each, at the end of the fourth-round in the Open category of the two-day chess tournament, being conducted by Gokuldham Chess Club at the Gokuldham High School, Goregaon.

Sahil Majumdar and Varun Dattani are leading with three points each in the u-10. In the under-14, four players, namely Yashodhan Gogte, R Chandrasekhar, Priyanka Vora and Aditya Vora and sharing the lead with 3 1/2 points after four rounds.