Bhullar five shots off the lead

Macau: Gaganjeet Bhullar brought home a two-under 69 on a rain-swept day to lie five shots off lead after the midway stage of the $500,000 Macau Open Friday.

Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-hong recovered from an early bogey to take the clubhouse lead. Bhullar followed his opening round 71 with 69 to aggregate 140 and asserted he was still in the hunt.

Meanwhile, it was curtains for Rahil Gangjee (72, 74) and Himmat Rai (77, 75), while C Muniyappa, Digvijay Singh and Anirban Lahiri were yet to complete their second round.

Ghosal loses

Manchester: Indian challenge ended at the $92,500 British Open tournament following Saurav Ghosal's straight set mauling in the opening round.

Ghosal was outplayed 7-11, 6-11, 5-11 by second seed Gregory Gaultierin of France in just 38 minutes at the National Squash Centre.

AI win

New Delhi: A double strike by Ravinder Singh helped Air India blank former champions Army XI 3-0 in the Group III quarter-final league match of the Durand Cup at the Ambedkar Stadium on Friday. Star studded Dempo Sports Club are the other team in the group.

Vijender case

New Delhi: The Infinity Optimal Solutions (IOS) Pvt Ltd said in a statement Friday that it is dismayed and amazed at the news of boxer Vijender Kumar’s deal with Percept since the Haryana boxer is still contractually and legally bound to IOS for the next six years.

TTFI chief dies

New Delhi: Secretary General of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), Moolchand Chauhan, who was suffering from cancer, passed away in Jaipur Friday. Chauhan, 83, is survived by his three daughters.

Chargers plan

Mumbai: The Deccan Chargers team management is planning to set aside a portion of the stock for the players as and when they go public. V. Shankar, the chairman of the Chargers, had promised the players before the second IPL that they would get a stock option scheme if they win the tournament, which they did.

ECB contracts

London: The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) gave central contracts to Matthew Prior, Graham Onions and Graeme Swann for the first time on Friday. Monty Panesar and Steve Harmison did not get contracts, although Andrew Flintoff took one of the second-tier deals following his retirement from Test cricket. Jonathan Trott was given an incremental contract.