In a battle stretched to the limit, Taneja struck down Alok 4-3. It was the favourite who went into the lead taking the first two frames 86-36, 56-48. While Alok seemed to make short work of his lesser known opponent, Taneja struck back, equalising the scores by winning the next two frames 57-17, 59-22.

Alok once again went into the lead taking the fifth frame 68-25. But Taneja pulled a coup to take the next two frames 73-36, 80-21 and put the match beyond his fancied opponent.

Yasin Merchant continued with his fine form. His victim today was former National champion Siddharth Rao of Bangalore. Rao seemed a bit off-colour as Merchant scored an emphatic 4-0 win in a best of seven encounter.

After winning the first frame 79-25, Merchant, winner of this year's Alpic Om Agrawal Snooker Tournament cracked abreak of 122 to take the frame 128-0. He went on to make quick work of Rao taking the next two frames 94-26, 73-0.

Yesterday's giant-killer Jitender Singh Dawer was also added two points to his tally today. After shocking top seed Devendra Joshi on Day One, Dawar marched past qualifier Manish Adnani 69-5, 64-41, 65-12, 31-66, 73-36.

Joshi meanwhile put the ghost of Dawer behind to ease past Antim Singhi, 4-1. Sixth seed Rafat Habib recorded his second win and a good one that over Nalin Patel. The Chennai player thwarted Patel 84-32, 71-15, 29-63, 71-19, 48-57, 78-46, who had lost his first tie against qualifier Nishant Dossa.

Dossa was the only qualifier today to register two points when he beat C Ravindranath of Bangalore 4-2.

Results (League, Second Round)

Chirag Ramakrishnan bt Vicky Jagtiani 4-0 (89-18, 64-30, 74-31, 111-7); Jitender Singh Dawer bt Manish Adnani 4-1 (69-5, 64-41, 65-12, 31-66, 73-36); Kamal Tulshan bt Ritesh Shah 4-2 (49-62, 64-35, 70-55, 73-38; 1-Devendra Joshi bt AntimSinghi 4-1 (66-56, 54-71, 81-9, 75-6, 88-27); 2-Ashok Shandilya bt SA Saleem 4-1 (68-81, 71-3, 60-24, 58-17, 65-29); Varun Taneja bt 3-Alok Kumar 36-86, 48-56, 57-17, 59-22, 25-68, 73-36, 80-21; M Rehani bt Dharminder Lily 4-3 (47-49, 25-66, 54-40, 86-28, 60-45, 51-78, 72-4).

Yesterday's results:

2-Ashok Shandilya bt C Ramakrishnan 4-3; 3-Alok Kumar bt C Ravindranath 4-0; 4-Dharminder Lily bt Kamal Tulshan 4-1.