Arjun Atwal struck a purple patch with five successive birdie in the middle of his round to come up with a five-under 65 that rocketed him to tied 17th position at the US Bank Championships of Milwaukee.

The Indian star carded a 65 and rose to nine-under 201 and a good final round can see him finish well inside top 10.

Daniel Chopra also shot a five-under 65 and his total of 11-under 199, saw him tied at sixth place.

Meanwhile leader Ben Crane continued to dominate with yet another great round, a six-under 64 that saw him reach 19-under 191 for three rounds.

He was leading second placed Scott Verplank by two shots with one round to go.

Rains interrupted play for almost three and three quarters of an hour on Saturday, the third day.

Arjun started the third day with a bogey on the tenth hole, but then found his touch on the 15th and he proceeded to birdie the next four holes also.

He gained shots on 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and the first after the turn. At that stage he was four-under and looking good for more. Another birdie on the sixth saw him come to five-under and he parred the rest to finish in 65.

With a driving accuracy of 85 per cent and 78 per greens in regulation, Atwal needed 27 putts, his best so far this week, for his round.

Chopra, whose father is Indian and mother Swedish, has been struggling this season. He has either missed cuts or finished in the middle of the heap and had just one top-10 finish at New Orleans.

Here he has shown better form with rounds of 66, 68 and 65. In the third round he had birdies on sixth, ninth, 11th, 12th and then closed with two birdies on 17th and 18th. His only bogey came on 13th.

Chris Smith (64) and Kenny Perry (65) were tied third five shots off the lead as Crane was trying to become the first start-to-finish winner since Robert Gomez in 1991.

Crane's sole previous win on the PGA Tour has been the 2003 BellSouth Classic.