On a day sprinkled with upsets, two-time Indian Open winner Ali Sher held his nerve to oust top seed Ashok Kumar in the second round of the SRF All-India Matchplay Championship, being played at the par-72, Delhi Golf Club.
Ali Sher birdied the 18th hole to win a neck-and-neck contest 1-up.
The other major upsets were authored by Lucknow golfer Jumman, who got the better of Kolkatan Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia 2&1.
Local lad Shamim Khan triumphed over '98 Indian Open winner Feroz Ali 7&5, while last year's SRF Matchplay runner-up Rahil Gangjee lost to Asian Tour star Amandeep Johl 4&3.
Meanwhile, second, third and fourth seeds Vijay Kumar, Arjun Singh and Mukesh Kumar registered comfortable wins to move into the third round.
Ali Sher was as surprised by the outcome of his battle with Ashok as the rest of the golfing fraternity.
"I never expected to win," said the veteran golfer.
"In fact just prior to my round, I told my friend Dinesh Kumar that I would make Ashok sweat for his win, but that he would win I never doubted," concluded the stocky Ali 'Baba'.
Perseverance pays and Ali's never say die spirit contributed to his triumph.
Ashok started off with back to back birdies to go two-up early on. Ali fought back with pars on the fifth and eighth but with Ashok paring to win the seventh the score-line at the lemon-break read one-up in the latter's favour. Ali equalized with a par on the tenth. A series of tied holes followed till the 17th, with the competition heating up the extent where the two golfers each birdied the 14th from the bunker.
On the final hole, the aggressive Ashok pulled out a driver in quest of a birdie. This proved fatal as the dangerous Delhi Golf Club roughs gobbled up his errant tee shot. The experienced Ali, with a driver-3-wood combination chipped to five feet and sank the resultant birdie putt to win.
The Gangjee - Johl clash looked like going in the former's favour when after nine holes the Kolkatan led one-up. However, on the back-nine, Johl won three straight holes to go two-up on Gangjee after 11.
"I should have won the next two holes but on the 12th, missed a six-feet par-putt to tie with Johl. On the 13th, Johl hit his ball into the rough but I lost despite being in the center of the fairway," said Gangjee, who on that occasion went on to duff his chip from the edge of the green to drop a shot. On the 14th, Johl sank a 20-feet birdie putt to tie with Gangjee and won the round 4 & 3 with a par on the15th.
Feroz Ali, the other top-seed to bow out, admitted to have experienced a sudden loss of form.
"I just couldn't make those vital pars today," said Feroz, who posted as many as eight bogeys in his 4 & 3 loss to Shamim.
Important results: 32-Ali Sher bt 1-Ashok Kumar (1-up); 2-Vijay Kumar bt 34-Mohd. Islam (4&2); 3-Arjun Singh bt 35-Basad Ali (4&3); 4-Mukesh Kumar bt 36-Roop Singh (5&4); 37-Jumman bt 5-Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (2&1); 6-Digvijay Singh bt 38-Amit Dube (1-up); 7-Yusuf Ali bt 26-Amritinder Singh (1-up); 8-Uttam Mundy bt 25-Naman Dawar (2&1); 9-Rafiq Ali bt 24-Vinod Kumar (2&1); 23-Shamim Khan bt 10-Feroz Ali (7&5).
