Amandeep Drall completes wire-to-wire win at Bangalore Golf Club

By Rahul Banerji

Seven months after she last won on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, Amandeep Drall made it a wire-to-wire run in the season’s fourth event at the Bangalore Golf Club on Friday.

Amandeep returned a 3-over par 73 which was good enough for her to beat Vani Kapoor (74) to the big prize.

Amandeep’s previous win on the Hero Tour came last July when she held a share of the lead after the first round and went on to win. This time she was sole leader through the three rounds.

Starting with a two-shot lead, Amandeep dropped a shot on the first hole and a double bogey soon thereafter, but with her nearest rival Vani also dropping two shots, the Panchkula golfer stayed ahead by one.

It was from the sixth hole that Amandeep pulled away with three birdies before making the turn to extend her lead over Vani to four shots.

There was more drama to follow as Amandeep hit a double bogey and bogey on successive holes but Vani could not cash in to close the gap as she traded a birdie and a bogey on the same two holes.

Comfortable cushion

Van dropped two further shots while Amandeep birdied for a solid four-shot cushion. She could thereafter afford to drop a shot on the final hole and still win by three as Vani totalled 216 to Amandeep’s 213.

For Vani, it was her best result since a runner-up finish behind amateur Sneha Singh in the 11^th leg at Hyderabad last year. This steady display despite the late bogeys on the final day will hold her in good stead.

Amateur Asmitha Sathish shot a 73 to finish third on 218, while Khushi Khanijau (73) was fourth on 221.

Neha Tripathi (75) and Oviya Reddi (77) were tied for fifth while Saaniya Sharma (75) was seventh and amateur Sneha Sharan (75) eighth. Gursimar Badwal (78) and Anousha Tripathi (79) completed the top 10.

Poor returns

It was a disappointing week for Pranavi Urs, winner of the last two events, once as an amateur and last week as a professional. She was also second in the first leg, but this week with rounds of 77-79-75 she was tied 11^th with Siddhi Kapoor (77).

The win on Friday took Amandeep to the top of the Hero Order of Merit, with earnings of Rs. 3,37,400. Ananya Datar (Rs. 2,73,350) is second and Afshan Fatima (Rs. 2,67,650) third.

Three make Bonville grade

At the Bonville Golf Resort in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Tvesa Malik was the best-placed Indian on 2-under par 142 going into the weekend rounds of the Geoff King Motors Australian Ladies Classic on Friday.

Tvesa recovered from an indifferent first day’s 74 to bring in a 4-under par round of 68 to sit ahead of Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar. She was 12 shots behind the leader.

Aditi followed a first day score of 3-under 69 with a 75 to sit on level par 144 while Diksha (73-72) was a shot behind her.

Three others, Ridhima Dilawari (77-71), Astha Madan (76-72) and Gaurika Bishnoi (78-78) failed to make the grade at the $350,000 (Australian) event that is co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour and the Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour.

Winning start for Girls in Blue

Not too far away, India’s T20 women’s team made a dream start to their campaign in the Women’s T20 World Cup, carving out a stunning 17-run victory over defending champions and four-time winners Australia at the Sydney Showground Stadium also on Friday.

Defending a sub-par total of 132, India were led to the win by leg-spinner Poonam Yadav (4/19), who broke the back of the home team’s chase with a near hat-trick, the Australians finishing on 115 in 19.5 overs.

Giving the leggie good support was medium-pacer Shikha Pandey (3/14) and some smart work in the field by Jemimah Rodrigues that led to two late run-outs.

India’s total of 132 was built around contributions of 29 (15b) from aggressive opener Shafali Verma, Rodrigues (26) and an unbeaten 48 from Deepti Sharma).

Alyssa Healy top-scored for Australia with a 35-ball 51, but had little support from the rest of the batting order.

Also read: Pranavi Urs makes a winning pro debut with third leg title