Busan Asian Games gold medallist Shiv Kapur faltered towards the end but managed to emerge as the joint leader with Mukesh Kumar of Mhow after the penultimate round of the Sahara-MCG Open Golf championship in Chennai on Thursday.

The two are leading the table with 198 each, a 12-under for three rounds, but cannot afford to relax on the concluding day tomorrow as Amritinder Singh (Chd-199), Digvijay Singh (Del-200) and Vijay Kumar and Sanjay Kumar (both Lucknow) at 203 each are close behind.

It was a creditable show by Kapur on a day when the 50 professionals had to combat heavy head wind and dried up greens besides tough pin positions at the back of the sloppy greens. Only 11 were able to return sub par scorers, the day's best being two under 68 by four golfers.

Kapur, who had played on different courses in the United States as an amateur, put pressure on both Mukesh Kumar and yesterday's leader, Amritinder Singh, who started the day with a two stroke advantage. He was five under for the day at the end of the 14th hole and was leading by three strokes.

Using a two iron at the 15th tee, longest at 468 yards in the 6667-yard link, Kapur overshot the green but chipped to five feet and missed a par-putt. A duffed second shot led to another bogey on the next hole and he overshot in the 17th to lose one more stroke.

On the other hand, Mukesh Kumar was consistent. Like his last week's Hyundai-TNGF title win, Mukesh Kumar has carded only a single bogey in 54 holes in this tournament.

Top scores (after 54 holes)

Pros: 198_Shiv Kapur (Del) (64,66,68), Mukesh Kumar (Mhow) (63,67,68); 199_Amritinder Singh (Chd) (65,63,71); 200_Digvijay Singh (DLFGCC) (67,64,69);203_ Vijay Kumar (Lucknow) (69,66,68), Sanjay Kumar (Lucknow) (68,67,68); 205_Yusuf Ali (Kolkata) (68,68,69); 206_Ashok Kumar (Del) (70,68,68); 207_Shiv Prakash (Kanpur) (67,72,68), S Stanley (Chen) (69,67,71), Amit Dube (Noida) (67,69,71), S Madaiah (B'lore) (66,69,72), BG Lalitha Kumara (Sri Lanka) (66,68,73).

Amateurs: 219_Darshan V (Chen) (73,72,74); 229_D Nagaraj (77,71,81)