Lahiri shoots 67 to lead by five strokes at Bilt Open

Anirban Lahiri was consistency personified at the Jaypee Greens, turning in a brilliant five-under 67 to lead by five strokes after the third round of Bilt Open golf tournament in Greater Noida on Friday.

Lahiri sank as many as six birdies against a lone bogey to aggregate 18-under 198 here.

The trio of Vikrant Chopra, Shankar Das and Abhinav Lohan blasted matching seven-under 65s to hold the second, third and fourth spots respectively with totals of 203, 204 and 205 at the Jaypee Greens.

Overnight second Chiragh had an indifferent day as he carded an even-par 72 to slip to fifth, while Jyoti Randhawa scored 66 to lie at the sixth place.

After firing a record-equalling 12-under 60 on Thursday, Lahiri once again started off well with a birdie at the second and picked up a couple of strokes at the fifth and sixth but a bogey at the eighth held him back.

On his return journey, the Bangalore-golfer blasted three more birdies at the 10th, 12th and 14th holes, before parring the remaining holes to stay ahead.

"My hitting was average in the front nine but putting was good. In my back nine, my hitting picked up but converting a few more putts would have been good," Lahiri said.

Asked about his thoughts on the last day, Lahiri said he can't afford to be defensive.

"I want to be unreachable because on this course everybody is scoring five-unders and six-unders. So I can't play defensive on the last day, I have to be attacking," he said.

"I don't think about the course once I leave the course and it helps to be with friends," he added.

The 2010 DLF Masters winner Ashok Kumar hit 68, while Shamim Khan brought home a 69 to share the seventh place with Digvijay Singh (71), Mukesh Kumar (71) and Gaurav Ghei (72).

Himmat Singh Rai turned in a sedate 70, while Gaganjeet Bhullar carded a 70 to lie tied 12th and tied 17th respectively.